AMLC stays on guard vs illegal use of cryptocurrencies

MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is stepping up its campaign against money launderers, as well as terrorist supporters and facilitators who are now exploiting the cyberspace through the use of cryptocurrency in their illicit activities.

AMLC Secretariat executive director Mel Georgie Racela said in his welcome remarks at the recent 2019 Counter-Terrorism Financing Summit, the Philippines is in the advanced stages compared with other jurisdictions as far as regulation of virtual currency exchanges is concerned.

Racela said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued the guidelines regulating virtual currencies as early as 2017.

According to Racela, the AMLC has also received nearly 90,000 suspicious transaction reports as well as customer due diligence documents from virtual currency exchanges.

Likewise, he said the council has released an analysis of suspicious transaction reports and at the same time assisted law enforcement agencies in investigation related to virtual currencies.

Racela reported the AMLC has referred 620 intelligence briefs and has conducted nine risk assessment and strategic studies since 2017.

According to Racela, AMLC has frozen assets worth over P1 billion, including P52 million worth or terrorism funds from January 2018 to July this year because of its collaboration with domestic law enforcement agencies.

Likewise, the estimated value of assets subject to civil forfeiture has totaled to over P600 million.

Racela said the AMLC continues to undergo massive reorganization and aggressive recruitment to adapt to the growing demands from law enforcement agencies, covered persons and international counterparts on money laundering investigations, as well as increasing requirements for compliance with anti-money laundering or counter-terrorism financial global standards.

For his part, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the Philippines has to step up its financial intelligence capabilities to determine how illicit funds are raised or generated, moved or transferred, and used.

“Our monitoring and surveillance have shown that terrorist supporters and facilitators are exploiting the cyberspace, through social networking sites, to funnel funds to terrorists,” Esperon said.

Esperon said law enforcement continues its efforts to disrupt these financial networks even before funds are moved or transferred.

“The emergence or proliferation of virtual and crypto currencies adds to our dilemma. This is where we seek the expertise and good practices of our counterparts to improve on our system, as this is a relatively new domain in our jurisdiction,” he said.

Esperon said there is a need to establish an operational guidance on virtual or crypto currencies as well as a secure information-sharing platform.

Likewise, Esperon said there should also be a multilateral analyst exchange program focusing on unregistered and suspicious remittance activities.

AMLC chairman and BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said fighting terrorism means teamwork among local and international stakeholders.