THE British government is working closely with regulators in the Philippines and around Asia to help stop money-laundering and terrorist-financing activities around the world worth as much as $1.2 trillion a year. At this level, the illicit flow of funds for laundering, terrorist financing and similar endeavors equal more or less 2.7 percent of the world’s total output or gross domestic product.
This was learned from Gert Demmink, a Dutch national working for the time being for the British government but whose four-day stay in the country was spent upgrading the capacity of Philippine anti-money laundering officials to track down, thwart and prosecute fraudsters and terrorist financiers. Demmink is a lawyer and forensic auditor and once worked at the Directorate of Supervision at the Netherlands Central Bank and senior adviser to central banks in the Netherlands IMF constituency (mainly former Soviet republics) with regard to anti-money laundering/counterterrorism financing/corruption and (tax) fraud. He has also advised Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Bulgaria. “The mission is not about trying to identify weak spots. The mission is about trying to get everybody in the region on a par with international best practices,” he said in an interview at the Traders Hotel.
According to him, the four days spent with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) “was about raising [compliance] standards.” “It was not only about having anti-money laundering legislation in place but applying that legislation where the need is highest because there is only so much [people and governments] can do,” he said. He lauded the Philippines and its officials for exhibiting deep commitments to the goals of anti-money laundering worldwide and cited the work done by the country’s AMLC to encourage local legislators to come up with enhanced laws against the illicit flow of funds......
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