Some 50 bank officers responsible for monitoring and reporting potentially suspicious transactions, along with their government counterparts from the financial intelligence unit and the National Bank, took part in a seminar on combating money laundering which concluded in Belgrade last week.

The two-day event, organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering, aimed to increase Serbia's economic transparency by improving the ability of banks operating in Serbia to assess potential risks, devise plans to mitigate these risks and report suspicious financial transactions to the Finance Ministry. In 2009 there were 1,584 reports of suspicious financial transactions, of which 1,575 came from banks.

"The OSCE Mission to Serbia is committed to furthering economic transparency, and we work with all institutions engaged in combating money laundering and economic crime. It is important that the private and public sector officers meet to discuss each other's roles, because the reporting of any suspicious transaction may lead to criminal prosecution and the recovery of funds," said Ruth van Rhijn, the head of the Mission's Rule of Law Department.

"Serbia will only be successful in combating money laundering if we work closely with banks to identify suspicious financial transactions. This seminar enables banks to review their compliance mechanisms and consider ways to further improve their methods to combat money laundering," added Aleksandar Vujicic, the Director of the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering.

At the seminar, OSCE experts, a financial crime prosecutor from Amsterdam and the Deputy Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Netherlands offered presentation and workshops on preventing money laundering.

Serbia's Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering also signed a co-operation agreement with the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Netherlands during the event.