Those people who say that the fight against money laundering has "fallen into the opposite ditch" and too strict controls hinder the entry of investments into Latvia are not correct, Ilze Znotiņa, the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia (FIU), said in an interview with Latvian Television's morning show "Rīta panorāma" on Thursday.
Here you have to remember who "those people" are. The list comes up quite impressive. Here are some of the brightest speakers and quotes from them!
Mārtiņš Kazāks, Governor of the Bank of Latvia: "Banks and supervisory authorities have fallen into the opposite ditch in their fight against "dirty money" and are currently not catching swindlers, but making life difficult for honest entrepreneurs, and this is unacceptable."
Krišjānis Kariņš, Prime Minister: "In the Latvian financial sector, you have to stop only looking for “black money” and think more about the development of the banking sector."
Egils Levits, President of Latvia: “The overhaul of the Latvian financial system - “closing the dirty money laundering tap” - was necessary, but now “we have moved from one ditch straight into the opposite ditch” - supervision to “catch dirty money” has become very all-encompassing and, in fact, applies to every citizen that is put in a position of justification: why did you pay the bill and what did you do with that money.” This is what the three most influential officials in the country have said in recent months in Panorāma, Diena and other media.
But now Znotiņa has told the truth in the latest instance and has quite unashamedly shown Kazāks, Kariņš and Levits their place. She wants to see who is behind the rumors or allegations that due to too strict control of financial flows, no investments are coming to Latvia. The head of the FIU referred to the data of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia that since 2017, the amount of direct investment in Latvia has increased by two billion euros, which in her opinion is a “very serious and significant increase”. Good question! Indeed: "Who is behind Kazāks, Levits and Kariņš?"
Znotiņa says that everything is totally tip-top - two billion have gotten here!
Where and how the two billion came from, why the starting point is 2017, how much investment would have come in, how much would not have come, if not for the harsh work of financial intelligence, experts might still argue about that. You can twist the numbers, you can manipulate them in this and that way. But that is probably not the main thing here. The main thing is that there is a rather interesting picture - the chief financial intelligence is now convincingly more influential than the three most influential officials in nominal terms, and she does not take to heart the chatter of these gentlemen.
Znotiņa’s institution has picked up speed, it has received praise from all kinds of foreign financial supervisors and advisers, and it lifts them up.
Znotiņa is also aware of the position of her repressive and independent institution. And it wouldn't be so neat if politics started dictating how she should behave and she would then have to follow the instructions. It would look bad.
Chief financial intelligence also reveals her philosophy, which is: “Do we really want to base our economy on criminal money? Do we really see it as our future?”
It is difficult to object, because nothing should be based on criminal money, if it is really criminal. However, the situation is no longer quite such that it would be only a really criminal, a legally proven criminal money that is seized and withdrawn from the circulation of Latvian commercial banks. Unfortunately, there is paranoia - banks that do not want trouble shake off any money that is even a little bit suspicious. The Latvian commercial banking system no longer serves non-residents' money, or it is served in a much smaller amount than before the financial overhaul. What is it, if not falling head-first into the opposite ditch?
As the leader of a repressive structure, Znotiņa sees Latvia in the world as an absolutely sterile country, where no deception is possible anymore and all swindlers are caught before they have even imagined on what to defraud. But the world is not exactly what it looks like from the windows of policing offices. Without lending, usury, moneymaking, money transfers, bills of exchange, checks and shares, Europe would still be living in flea-ridden huts and pouring its waste out the windows. Commercial banks are one of the main drivers of economic development, and especially in today's digital age of globalization, money transactions take place every day around the world between countries and continents. However, Latvia wants to stand on the sidelines and just so that the banks here deal only with salary payments on cards and people's purchases in stores. It’s not from dreams that Kazāks, Kariņš and Levits have gotten the idea that the lives of bank customers have become more difficult, that investors are beginning to avoid Latvia, that non-residents from many countries other than Western Europe or North America cannot even open an account in Latvia. Presumably, there are people who tell them about it, complain about it and then want nothing more to do with Latvia.
Another thing that has been skewed is such a fundamental value of a lawful country as the presumption of innocence - entrepreneurs who come into contact with the Latvian commercial banking system have to immediately justify themselves and prove that they are not criminals and that their money is good. Although it would be normal for the defense and evidence to begin only if there are reasonable suspicions and accusations. Entrepreneurs fear that if they do not prove that their money is good, they may lose it. It is thought that this is what Levits had meant with hints to supervision, which has become all-encompassing and applies to every citizen who finds himself in a position of justification.
There is a pretty big problem.The overhaul of the financial system had to be done, but now the system has been so extremely repaired, whitewashed, painted that no one is allowed to sit anywhere.You can only walk there in gas masks, only plastic flowers can grow there and everything is so disinfected that the businesses do not want to stay there at all.