About our centre

Publication date 18-12-2018

AMLC, who are we and what do we do?

Money laundering is a threat to society which can seriously undermine our financial system. The fight against money laundering is a matter of high priority for the government because it is an important part of combating serious crime. By obscuring the origin of their illegal gains, the perpetrators of crimes are able to stay out of reach of the investigative authorities and undisturbedly enjoy their accumulated wealth.

Origins AMLC

To give substance to this key objective the State Secretary for Finance was allocated resources to improve the results in the fight against money laundering. Implementation thereof was based on an initial business case. This made it possible to establish a number of investigation teams inside the FIOD to combat money laundering, and to set up the AMLC.

The AMLC was formed in 2013 with the intention of developing into a platform where the parties involved in combating money laundering could share their knowledge and experience and work together operationally. The basic principle is that all the public and private parties who play a part in combating money laundering should work in the centre together and be supported from that centre. This strengthens and guarantees the availability of information, both nationally and internationally. Each year the AMLC adopts an annual plan. Our strategic plans and reports can be found at the end of this page.

Cooperation

The AMLC is a meeting place. For partner organisations inside the government such as the FIOD, police, Public Prosecution Service (OM) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). And also for cooperation partners outside the government, such as banks, exchange services for virtual currency and universities. Here they combine forces to combat money laundering in a unified way on a broad front, to protect the integrity of the financial system.

The AMLC contributes to the formulation of new money laundering typologies, draws up specific phenomenon descriptions, runs projects, launches major money laundering investigations, builds and manages unique data availability etc. It does all of these things in close connection with our cooperation partners. In the immediate future the AMLC will focus explicitly on public-private partnership and international collaboration. An organisation like the AMLC is always on the move, remaining focused on changing targets and circumstances.

This video shows how important cooperation is to fight money laundering. The primary partners of the AMLC know what we do, but there are also relevant parties with whom we do not cooperate. For them, this movie outlines what the AMLC is. An increasing number of organizations and individuals feel that they are morally obliged to fight money laundering, regardless of any legal obligations. Do you see reasons for a collaboration with us or do you want to explore this? Please contact us at aml.centre_postbus@belastingdienst.nl.

Knowledge

Knowledge about money laundering issues is an important cornerstone for the AMLC. The AMLC therefore seeks to develop knowledge and awareness of all the issues in the fight against money laundering. We distinguish two levels in this regard:

• Creating awareness in society.
• Raising the level of knowledge among specialists already engaged in combating money laundering. The AMLC offers knowledge in various forms. Apart from traditional, classical courses we also deploy innovative methods of knowledge-transfer. We organise webinars for example, where people can acquire information and ask questions from their workplace. We have also developed an interactive game on money laundering, whereby problems of anti money laundering are approached from an entirely new perspective. The outcomes of this game are then for example used as input to identify new phenomena.

Given the rapid developments in the field of money laundering, our knowledge department is constantly updating knowledge for the AMLC and its partners. The sharing of up-to-date knowledge can make an important contribution to the combating of money laundering. To that end we use a range of knowledge products, such as a newsletter containing current case law, national and international news reports and in-depth articles. On national level we publish and distribute a public and a private newsletter. Our international newsletters aim at our tactical and strategic public partners. You can apply for these newsletters through our general e-mail address. Our contact data can be found here.

By bringing together an overview of money laundering alerts, criminal investigations, projects and knowledge development, the AMLC ensures that knowledge and investigation are mutually reinforcing.

We collect, refine and distribute knowledge about the fight against money laundering. Some of that knowledge comes from inside the AMLC and some from outside. We answer questions from specialists and offer courses and information about the fight against money laundering. We also develop specific training for a range of target groups, analyse trends and identify new money laundering methods. The AMLC works with themes to bring focus and prioritisation to its activities. By working with themes, cooperation by public and private parties in the fight against money laundering is encouraged and better coordinated. Working with themes can also be one way to fulfil a political or social desire to tackle particular money laundering problems. It is a highly suitable way to promote international cooperation and to get a clearer picture of so-called blind spots.

Themes

A theme arises by drawing up lists of subjects at and with the relevant parties such as the OM, FIOD and police, private parties and the scientific community. One or more themes is then chosen from those subjects on the basis of (social) importance. In principle a theme remains in place for at least one year. A theme is understood to be:

• a clearly delineated subject in the field of money laundering;
• with targeted attention (focus) and prioritisation throughout the entire anti-money laundering chain;
• in which the activities are directed towards achieving a predefined objective.

For the year 2019 the following themes were determined:

• Financial Safety
• Trade Based Money Laundering
• Concealed Assets

In 2018 we finalized our work on a previous theme, New Payment Methods. Future work and coordination on this theme is consigned to another FIOD team, the Financial Advanced CyberTeam (FACT).

Do you work for an organisation which is affected by this theme and would you like to know more about it? Or would you like to explore whether cooperating with us and our partners on this theme would be useful? In that case contact us.

Management Reports

You can read our available management reports here.