Collaboration against money laundering and organised crime.
Financial crime does not stop at one bank, one company or one country. Criminal networks can move across borders, sectors and digital channels. That is why cooperation between banks, police and authorities is essential.
The initial goal of SAMLIT was to improve the overall ability to fight money laundering, both operationally and strategically. Over time, new anti-money laundering legislation has enabled operational collaborations to be driven through other agreements and SAMLIT to fight financial crime at a more strategic level.
Additionally, the collaboration has evolved to also include fraud prevention.
Organisations that are part of SAMLIT:
The main purpose of SAMLIT is to improve the ability to identify and prevent money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorism financing.
The main means within the cooperation to fight money laundering are:
SAMLIT was initiated in 2019 and launched as a pilot in June 2020. Since the outcome of the pilot was very promising, the participants decided in early 2021 to take the cooperation to the next level by formalising it as a permanent cooperation.
SAMLIT regularly shares insights from its work to a larger audience through seminars and webinars. The chairmanship rotates between the banks.
Digitalisation is transforming every aspect of banking, making the stability and reliability of the bank's IT platform crucial. Interruptions or breaches in these systems can have significant consequences for customers, suppliers, and employees alike.
Awareness among employees is key in our efforts to prevent crime. Our employees are essential to detect irregularities – be it with the help of computer systems or through interaction with people.
Money laundering is the illegal process of criminals trying to make funds made from unlawful activity seem to have been generated from a legitimate source. This poses a threat not just to banks and the entire financial system but also to democracy and society as a whole.
While the internet and mobile phones have made it easier to bring people together and make the world more accessible, technical devices have also made it easier for scammers to commit fraud.
