2004-11-25
1. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania (BoL) approved the Instructions for Credit Institutions on the Prevention of Money Laundering.
The document presents the new provisions of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and of the secondary legislation harmonized with it. They provide for a tighter procedure for customer identification and require paying particular attention to suspicious monetary operations. Particular attention should be given to clients of credit institutions from those countries and territories that do not cooperate in the field of the prevention of money laundering and might be involved in the financing of terrorism.
In working out the instructions for credit institutions, 40 new recommendations of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the prevention of money laundering were taken into consideration.
The new instructions are for banks and other credit institutions holding a license issued by the Bank of Lithuania as well as for domestically operating branches of foreign credit institutions.
Credit institutions must identify the client or its representative where the amount of single monetary operations performed by them is in excess of 50 thousand litas (or its equivalent in foreign currency). The identity must also be established where several connected monetary operations executed by the client exceed this amount or the amount of cash exchanged during a single currency exchange operation exceeds 20 thousand litas (or its equivalent in foreign currency).
On having established that the client is going to execute a suspicious monetary operation, the credit institution must stop it and inform the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) under the Ministry of the Interior.
Special focus should also be placed on whether the client of a credit institution is not included into a consolidated list of persons, undertakings and institutions to which financial sanctions of the European Union are applicable. The list also includes the persons and organizations associated with terrorism indicated by the United Nations Security Council.
The first methodical recommendations for credit institutions on the prevention of money laundering were approved by the Bank of Lithuania in 1999.
Upon approval of the Instructions for Credit Institutions on the Prevention of Money Laundering, Resolution No. 134 of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania of 24 October 2002 „On Methodical Recommendations for Credit Institutions on the Prevention of Money Laundering” was recognized as invalid.
2. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania decided to supplement the information about the liquidity condition of the domestic banking system provided on the website of the Bank of Lithuania. To be introduced is a forecast for the surplus (shortage) of the average reserves of the banking system in litas of 7 calendar days and of the whole reserve requirement maintenance period will be announced.
Starting with November 2000, information about bank reserves and currency outside the Bank of Lithuania has been announced on a daily basis on the web site of the Bank of Lithuania.
Apart from the reserve forecast, information about the required reserves of the banking system, average the reserves of the banking system in litas on the settlement accounts with the Bank of Lithuania during the past days of the reserve requirement maintenance period and the amount on the last previous banking day, as well as information about the factors behind the daily change in the reserves will be announced.
Such data will be published on every banking day by 10 a.m.
Similar information on the euro area bank reserves is announced by the European Central Bank as well.
This decision will come into effect from 24 January 2005. It was adopted with the aim of increasing the stability of the interbank market with the help of information about autonomous factors behind bank reserves and reserve forecasts.
3. The Board of the Bank of Lithuania decided to announce the 50 litas silver commemorative coin devoted to the Curonian Spit (UNESCO World Heritage) as legal tender. It will be put into circulation on 15 December this year.
The author of the graphic (artistic) design and the plaster model of the coin is Rytas Jonas Belevicius.
The mintage of the coins devoted to the Curonian Spit is 2000 pieces. The coins have been struck in the State Company Lithuanian Mint.