Ukraine and the Vatican have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in countering the laundering of proceeds from crime.
It means the money related to predicate crimes, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
This is reported by Depo.ua citing the press service of the State Financial Monitoring Service.
It has been noted that the document was signed by the head of the Service, Ihor Cherkasky, and the president of the Vatican’s office for supervision and financial information (Financial Intelligence Unit of the Holy See), Carmelo Barbagallo.
This means that the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine and the Vatican will exchange information that they have at their disposal about financial transactions in respect of which there is suspicion.
The memorandum is the first bilateral document of interdepartmental nature between Ukraine and the Vatican since the exchange of notes on mutual recognition in March 1992.
In the follow-up of the document signing, Cherkassky drew attention to the uniqueness of the event of establishing direct contacts with the Vatican’s financial intelligence service, and to the fact that to date the Ukrainian authorities have not concluded a single international agreement with the Holy See and its institutions.
This, he said, once again underscores the importance of preventing and countering money laundering and terrorism financing in a global context.
It is also reported that to date, the State Financial Monitoring Service has concluded 82 international agreements of an interdepartmental nature on cooperation with financial intelligence units of foreign countries.