HM Government of Gibraltar has entered into an agreement with Coinfirm Ltd., a leading RegTech firm, to trial a new AML risk management platform for crypto and block- chain assets.
The collaboration between HM Government of Gibraltar and Coinfirm will benefit regulatory and law enforcement agencies in the jurisdiction with the use of advanced blockchain-native anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing analytics.
This is the first time this innovative technology is being used to support Gibraltar’s work in the international fight against money laundering.
The AML Platform is able to monitor high-risk transactions and trace misappropriated funds through visualisers amongst other proprietary investigative tools. The smart, data-led automatic analytics can overcome highly complex criminal enterprise schemes through deploying various methodologies including the destination and source of funds, fingerprints of activity, ownership analysis, e-discovery and clustering algorithms.
Albert Isola, Minister for Digital and Financial Services commented, “As we continue to develop our VASP infrastructure, ensuring our regulatory bodies have the tools to combat financial crime in the crypto asset industry is of paramount importance. We must be equipped to counter threats such as those posed by criminal actors. I am very grateful to the team at Coinfirm for their support in allow- ing us access to and use of their platform.”
“Conducting investigations into criminals leveraging crypto assets is becoming crucial in financial crime cases as blockchain’s importance in the wider economy gains steam. With the AML Platform and Coinfirm’s ongoing support we will be able to more effectively challenge the various illicit schemes that malicious actors devise” added Paweł Kuskowski, CEO and co-founder at Coinfirm.
Visit by Spanish Senator
The Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Spanish Senate, Senator Antonio Gutierrez Limones, paid a courtesy call on the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo last month.
The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and the Attorney General Michael Llamas were also present in the meeting.
The discussion centred on matters of common interest in particular on the matters that are the usual well known views of Gibraltar and the Campo which plague so many people’s views of the area.
The Chief Minister said, “I am very pleased to have received Antonio and to have had a chance to have a discussion about the issues that are relevant to the reality of impetus that the day to day lives of Gibraltarians and people in the region around us.“
BEAT MEASURES FURTHER EXTENDED
The Chief Minister has announced some of the business support measures that are set to continue until 30 June 2021.
Businesses that are participating in the BEAT scheme will receive the following percentages based on the average payment that they received in April and May 2020:
• 30% to be paid for April 2021
• 20% to be paid for May 2021; and
• a final payment of 10% to be paid for June 2021.
The above payments will be made to all participating businesses, except for those sectors that continue to be heavily affected by the travel restrictions imposed by other countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participating businesses from these heavily affected sectors will receive additional tailored financial support that will be reviewed by Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar on a month by month basis. This tailored support is also expected to end on 30 June 2021 – if matters progress as hoped.
All BEAT payments will be made automatically to participating businesses. Participating businesses do not need to take any action in order to receive these BEAT grant payments.
The Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce welcomed the announcement by the Government but also added it wanted to make sure that Gibraltar’s private sector could continue to operate and emerge stronger from the crisis of the past twelve months. This would help to put the Rock’s economy in the best possible position to deal with the challenges that inevitably lie ahead.
