New Delhi, April 16 (IANS). The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) has signed two separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to prevent money laundering and financial crimes. The Finance Ministry gave this information on Thursday.
According to the ministry, these agreements are aimed at strengthening better information sharing and mutual coordination among key regulators of the financial sector so that crimes like money laundering and terrorism financing can be effectively dealt with.
Under these MoUs, all the agencies will share necessary information and intelligence inputs from their respective databases. Also, a set procedure will be developed for reporting by regulated entities to FIU-India, which will be as per Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) rules.
Under this collaboration, information will also be shared with foreign financial intelligence units, which will be in line with the Egmont Information Exchange Principle.
SEBI and PFRDA, in collaboration with FIU-India, will also organize training and awareness programs to strengthen the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) capacity of regulated entities.
According to the government, this collaboration includes risk assessment across different segments of the financial sector, sharing of red-flag indicators to identify suspicious transactions and further tightening enforcement of regulations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Under these agreements, there will be regular coordination through nodal officers and meetings will be held every quarter, in which necessary information will be shared and important issues will be discussed.
The agreement was signed between FIU-India Director Amit Mohan Govil, SEBI Whole-Time Member Sandeep Pradhan and PFRDA Whole-Time Member Randeep Singh Jagpal. The agreement was signed in the presence of PFRDA Chairman Sivasubramaniam Raman.
FIU-India is the country’s lead agency that collects, analyzes and shares information related to suspicious financial transactions. SEBI is the regulator of the stock market, while PFRDA monitors the pension sector (such as NPS and Atal Pension Yojana) and protects the interests of investors.
–IANS
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