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36 I Central Europe bne July 2019
Demographic “tipping point” imminent for CEE labour markets
bne IntelliNews
The ‘tipping point’ at which labour demand will become equal to labour supply is just two years away in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland, says a new study from the Vienna Institute for International Eco- nomic Studies (wiiw).
www.bne.eu
Latvian parliament votes for tough new measures against financial crime
bne IntelliNews
The law was passed after a series of financial scandals, which put Riga under pressure to clean up its banking sector.
Latvia’s third largest bank ABLV was shut down in 2018 after the US Treasury accused it of “institutionalised money laundering” and North Korea sanctions breaches, which led to its collapse. This coincided with accusations that the governor of the Latvian Central Bank, Ilmars Rimsevics, had demanded bribes.
The new legislation sets out the duties of the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) which regulates
Latvia’s financial sector in combating money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CFT) in the financial sector.
Under the new rules, all members of the FCMC board including its chairman will be appointed by the parliament, said a government statement. This raised expectations that the government is preparing to remove the head of the regulator, Peters Putnins.
The legislation also implements the EU’s 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive six months before of the deadline. “These changes are in line with international standards and in compliance with the Basel Committee’s banking supervision principles, as they will further improve the transparency of the candidate selection process,” the government said.
“Today’s reform package will strengthen the independence, governance and democratic accountability of the governance structure of the Latvian financial and capital watchdog FCMC.”