The new members of the Financial Intelligence Processing Centre (FITC) were installed yesterday in the presence of the Minister of Finance, the Director General of Taxation, Amel Abdellatif, the Director General of the Treasury, Fayçal Tadinit, the Director General of Customs, Noureddine Khaldi and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance, Brahim Djamel Kessali.
According to its tasks, the CTRF is responsible for "collecting and processing the reports of suspicion transmitted to it by the reporting entities and transmitting, if necessary, the corresponding file to the territorially competent public prosecutor, whenever the facts are liable to criminal prosecution".' The staff of 25 people is structured in Council, General Secretariat and four technical services responsible for investigations and analyses, documentation and databases, legal and cooperation.
The President of the CTRF, Sid-Ahmed Saidi, in office since November 2019 after having held the position of Comptroller General of Finance at the level of the General Inspectorate of Finance, said on this occasion that this body receives more than 1,700 reports of suspicion per year and that it 'is to work on the modernization of its capabilities. In particular by recruiting the human resources competent in the field.
One of the major projects that the CTRF, a body created in 2002 and launched in 2005, is due to launch shortly concerns "tele-declaration and the adaptation of regulations accordingly", said its first official. According to the latter, other "challenges" await the CRTF such as to succeed, in 2022, the evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Financial Action Task Force of the Middle East and North Africa (GAFIMOAN), concerning the effectiveness of Algerian "anti-money laundering" mechanism, against the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".
In 2009, the evaluation concluded that Algeria's policy was in line with international standards, international conventions and FATF recommendations, as well as UN Security Council resolutions. In 2013, the FITC joined the Egmont Group, which brings together financial intelligence units from 138 countries to promote better exchange of financial intelligence.

An "adapted" banking and financial system

For the Minister of Finance, present at the ceremony, all the means will be made available as part of the national system to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The opportunity, for him, to affirm also that "Algeria will always move forward in terms of strengthening its legal or regulatory framework as well as in terms of making available the appropriate means to the CTRF".
Aymene Benabderrahmane said that the objective of his ministry is to align with international standards allowing Algeria to remain permanently at the top of international classifications in terms of the fight against the various financial scourges. "Among its tasks, the CTRF carries out regular assessments and reports on the level of implementation of the necessary reforms in terms of combating breaches of financial legislation in the context of improving governance", pointed out the country's treasurer.
According to him, the role of the CTRF also includes financial information, particularly at the level of money laundering and the financing of terrorism "which are becoming complex crimes due to technological advancement and information and communication technologies as well as globalization that has contributed to the development of cross-border criminal gangs". "Algeria is one of the few countries to bring together all the mechanisms," he recalled, adding that "the national banking and financial systems are perfectly adapted to the fight against money laundering whatever its form". currents of embezzlement that stem from terrorism and similar activities.
Algeria has never given up in the fight against this scourge," he insisted.