In the fight against “dirty money” we have entered the second ditch / Article / LSM.lv

Banks and supervisory authorities have entered the second ditch in the fight against “dirty money” and are currently not catching scammers, but also making life difficult for honest entrepreneurs, and this is unacceptable, Mārtiņš Kazāks, Governor of the Bank of Latvia, told LTV “Rīta panorāmai”.

He said that the Bank of Latvia listens to the public and hears that honest entrepreneurs are unable to make payments, close accounts for them, and it is difficult for investors to enter because the requirements for combating money laundering are exaggerated.

Kazaks emphasized that this is not good for the Latvian economy, it is unacceptable, and the situation must be resolved urgently.

According to the Governor of the Bank of Latvia, the problem is both on the regulatory and supervisory side and on the banking side, as they are exaggerating for fear of penalties.

“To catch some swindlers, it can’t be that everyone is forced to justify that there are no swindlers,” Kazak said. “Let’s catch crooks, let’s put the honest at ease.”

He acknowledged that a dialogue had begun on this issue, and that is good, but there must be results and the situation must be resolved.

CONTEXT:

Investors began to talk about the difficulties with opening accounts for foreign companies after following “Overhaul of the financial system”, banks introduced strict anti – money laundering requirements. Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (“New Unity”) also recently acknowledged that the Latvian financial sector should just stop looking for “black money” and we need to think more about the development of the banking sector.

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