--- title: "A Safe Haven for Banks: How the Egmont Group Proposes to Combat Money Laundering" description: "The Egmont Group proposes implementing a \"safe haven\" for banks to encourage data exchange with government agencies. This will allow for combined efforts in the fight against money laundering and cross-border schemes, removing liability risks for banks regarding information disclosure within the framework of crime fighting. 🏦🔒🚫" date: 2026-08-03T23:40:07.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/egmont-group-safe-haven-for-banks-combat-money-laundering tags: [egmont-group, olga-vasilevskaya-smagliuk, money-laundering, ukraine, financial-intelligence] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # A Safe Haven for Banks: How the Egmont Group Proposes to Combat Money Laundering ![Egmont Group building with distinctive glass bridge and clock, symbolizing reliable protection for banks against money laundering](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/04/egmont-group-bezpechnaya-gavan-dlya-bankov-borba-s-otmyvaniem/egmont-group-bezpechnaya-gavan-dlya-bankov-borba-s-otmyvaniem-1.webp) The global fight against financial crime requires new tools. The Egmont Group — an international association of financial intelligence units — has initiated a proposal to strengthen public-private partnerships. The goal of this proposal is to more effectively combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and cross-border schemes. This was reported by People's Deputy Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk in her Telegram channel. ### The Problem of Fragmented Data The essence of the proposed mechanism is simple: banks, financial institutions, and the state must begin to systematically exchange signals regarding suspicious schemes. In Ukraine, the functions of financial intelligence are performed by the State Service of Financial Monitoring (State Financial Monitoring). The logic of this approach is based on an understanding of the nature of modern crimes. Often, no single bank or investigative body sees the full picture on its own. Criminal networks intentionally distribute operations across different institutions, accounts, jurisdictions, and countries. This is done to hide the origin of funds and complicate investigations. Without information exchange, each transaction may appear legal until the full mosaic comes together. ### Legal Barriers Instead of Technical Ones Until now, the main obstacle to effective cooperation has not been technical, but legal. Compliance departments of banks are strictly limited by banking secrecy rules, personal data protection, and commercial confidentiality. Financial institutions fear that transferring information to state authorities or other partners could lead to lawsuits, sanctions, or claims for data disclosure. To solve this problem, the Egmont Group proposes introducing a legislatively enshrined "safe haven". ### What is a "Safe Haven" This mechanism is designed to protect a bank that conscientiously transfers information according to clearly defined rules within the framework of the fight against financial crime. In other words, if a bank acts not arbitrarily, but within the established procedure, it should not bear responsibility for the very fact of such exchange. Public-private partnership does not imply uncontrolled exchange of banking secrets. On the contrary, it requires strict regulations: who can transfer data, to whom, in what cases, in what volume, and with what level of protection. In such a model, financial intelligence and law enforcement agencies can share typologies, risk indicators, and information on current schemes with banks. In turn, banks get the opportunity to faster identify related transactions, accounts, or suspicious client behavior that would otherwise go unnoticed in isolation. ### Successful Experience of Europol The practical effectiveness of this approach has already been proven. A bright example is the Europol Financial Intelligence Public-Private Partnership (EFIPPP). This platform brings together Europol, financial intelligence units, law enforcement agencies, and financial institutions. Thanks to the EFIPPP format, participants exchange relevant information faster, identify cross-border schemes, and react to how funds disappear in transfer chains or are moved to other jurisdictions. This is especially important for fighting complex crimes: human trafficking, corrupt payments, sanctions evasion, and illegal asset stripping. ### Relevance for Ukraine For Ukraine, the idea of a "safe haven" is of critical importance. The country's financial system operates under conditions of war, high sanction risks, and active fraud schemes. Banks already perform a huge volume of financial monitoring but often see only fragments of operations. If a suspicious scheme passes through several banks or crosses borders, it is extremely difficult to detect without coordinated information exchange. Legislative protection for banks could reduce their fear of liability for conscientious data exchange. It is important to note that such a mechanism must be accompanied by reliable safeguards: strict access control, recording of grounds for exchange, protection of personal data, and liability for abuse of power. ### Changing the Monitoring Paradigm The Egmont Group's approach effectively shifts the focus from formal financial monitoring to an intelligence model. Banks must not just send fragmented reports on suspicious transactions but work within a unified system where information is combined into a complete picture. This gives the state more chances to see the scale of a criminal scheme and law enforcement the ability to freeze or seize assets faster.