Estonia’s Ministry of Finance outlined legislative amendments to the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework that would put the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (Rahapesu Andmebüroo) database data processing on a clearer statutory footing and expand its functionality with a strategic analysis capability, alongside changes to governance and oversight arrangements. The amendments would specify in law what data are collected, the purposes for which they are used, and how and to what extent they are processed, with the ministry noting the changes mainly concern legal-person data and that analysis is carried out in a pseudonymised manner. The Financial Intelligence Unit database would be upgraded to support strategic analysis using anonymised but, where necessary, reversible data, including profiling and text and data mining, with supervision of the process by the Data Protection Inspectorate. The package also transposes an EU directive on AML/CFT measures, including clarifying the content and accessibility of beneficial ownership data and making targeted changes to the Financial Intelligence Unit’s supervisory arrangements, and updates the AML/CFT system’s governance by detailing how the government commission and advisory committees are formed and operate. Parliament amended the bill to add an annual reporting obligation requiring the Financial Intelligence Unit to submit a yearly overview of its task performance, including the number of cases opened and the justification for doing so, to the Riigikogu special committee supervising security authorities.

Original source View in tracker