CONFIRMED: EU lawmakers to ratify Dutch FIU chief Hennie Verbeek-Kusters as AMLA Executive Board member

By STEPHEN RAE for AML Intelligence

Dutch candidate Hennie Verbeek-Kusters is to be formally appointed to the AMLA Executive Board next week.

Ms Verbeek-Kusters is head of the FIU Netherlands and former chair of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. She takes up the vacancy created when Marcus Pleyer became a State Secretary in the German government.

She appeared before MEPs in private session on Tuesday, December 2 where she impressed the lawmakers. Her appointment will now be formally approved on Monday evening next in a vote at the European Parliament sitting in Strasbourg, AML Intelligence has learned.

At AML Intelligence we are glad to send our congratulations to Hennie who has spearheaded many successful and innovative approaches to fighting financial crime at the Dutch FIU and also at Egmont. The Netherlands FIU is seen as one of the best and one of the most proactive in the world.

Her appointment will also help alleviate anxiety in some EU capitals that FIUs were under-represented on the AMLA Executive Board.

Spain’s Juan Manuel Vega Serrano was the sole board member who had served as an FIU chief, with the three others along with the chair, coming from supervisory backgrounds.

With two of the six Executive Board members now having FIU experience, the vital role of the units in fighting financial crime will be represented at the top level.

Egmont colleagues described how she dedicated thousands of hours of her energy and time to the group on top of her job as Dutch FIU chief. Moreover, during her tenure as Chair, FIU Netherlands hosted the 26th EG Plenary, where the importance of public-public partnerships for fighting ML/TF was emphasized.

In July 2017, she was the first woman to assume the role of Egmont Chair and stepped in as Interim Chair in January 2020 before being selected for a second term in July 2020.

“With her leadership, she also elevated women’s roles in the organization, culminating in an all-female leadership team (Chair and Vice-Chairs) under her watch,” the group said.

Mrs. Verbeek-Kusters also held several vital roles in the organization before becoming EG Chair. “Hence, a leadership position was, therefore, a natural continuation and recognition of her previous efforts, always aiming to enhance cooperation among FIUs and the private sector,” said a spokesperson.

She chaired the IT Working Group (WG) and Technical Assistance and Training WG and was involved in restructuring the EG founding principles. Mrs. Verbeek-Kusters has chaired the Steering Group for setting up the Egmont Centre of FIU Excellence and Leadership (ECOFEL) since 2016 and represented the EG Europe I Region from 2019 to 2020.

During her terms as Chair, Mrs. Verbeek-Kusters according to Egmont oversaw “significant accomplishments for our organization, including:

• Leading the ambitious EG IT Renewal Project efforts to design its own future-proof IT solution allowing FIUs to move from international cooperation to collaboration.
• Placing particular emphasis on attracting more members to the organization from Africa and Asia. During her Chairmanship, the EG membership increased from 156 to 166 FIUs.
• Leading the EG through the COVID-19 pandemic when the organization quickly moved to virtual operations without interrupting international member cooperation.
• Leading the development of a nimble and forward-thinking strategic plan in July 2018, placing FIUs at the center of domestic AML/CFT efforts, and successfully implementing the plan.
• Leading efforts to develop the organization’s first five-year strategy, handing over an ambitious vision and strategic objectives to the next Chair.”