By CARLO BOFFA, EU Correspondent
THE Egmont Group has re-elected Elzbieta Franków-Jaśkiewicz, deputy director of the Polish FIU, for a second term during its annual plenary in Azerbaijan.
The group also elected Muhammad bin Abdulrahman Almuhanna, head of FIU Saudi Arabia, as its new vice-chair for a two-year term. Daniel Thelesklaf, director of FIU Germany, will remain in his post as the other vice-chair.
During the plenary at Baku from July 5-10, the group endorsed six projects as part of the next Egmont Group Strategic Plan:
- Streamlined Data Integration for FIU Questionnaires (SDIFQ) – Phase II
- Joint project with IMF on Updating the 2004 FIU Book
- New Terrorist Financing Risks and Landscape
- The Role of FIUs in Fighting Environmental Crimes – Phase II (Operational Bulletins)
- The Role of FIUs in Preparation of Strategic Intelligence
- Effective Public-Private Partnerships – Practical Guidance for Design, Governance and Operationalisation in the Fast-Changing ML/FT Context – Report and Brochure
“The Egmont Group Plenary is a critical moment for FIUs to come together, exchange perspectives, and reinforce our collective response to financial crime,” Franków-Jaśkiewicz said. “Our work remains grounded in cooperation, trust, and a shared commitment to protecting the integrity of the global financial system.”
The group also held a discussion on advancing the future of PPPs in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, in which Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, an executive board member of the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority, took part.
AMLA has set up a working group with the bloc’s data privacy watchdog to issue guidance on what kind of information participants of these partnerships can share without breaching privacy rules.
The group also said it has increased its membership to 186 after welcoming FIUs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Madagascar and Rwanda.
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