Five Dutch banks (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Triodos Bank and de Volksbank) have taken a collective initiative to fight against money-laundering (ML) and the financing of terrorism (TF). The initiative, called Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL), will supplement the banks’ individual transaction monitoring activities. TMNL will detect unusual patterns in transactions that individual banks cannot detect themselves.
Research undertaken by the banks under the aegis of the Dutch Banking Association showed that collective transaction monitoring will improve ML/TF detection. It also showed that combining transaction data between banks will bring in new information that will be useful in the fight against ML/TF.
The five banks are working closely with government authorities to improve the identification, detection, prosecution and conviction of financial criminals. This initiative coincides with the Money Laundering Action Plan announced by the Dutch government in mid-2019. The plan is likely to lead to an amendment of the AML/CFT Act in support of collective transaction monitoring. The start of TMNL is in anticipation of the proposed amendment to expedite and improve the fight against ML/TF. The hope is that other banks will also be able to utilize TMNL eventually.
