Policy and Procedures Working Group (PPWG)
The PPWG develops operational policy and provides advice on strategic issues impacting the Egmont Group, including the effective exchange of information and adherence to international standards.
The PPWG provides a forum where Egmont Group member FIUs can identify important operational policy and strategic issues and respond to them by coordinating a response across the organization and, in some instances, with partner organizations. The PPWG also supports the Egmont Group’s relationships, including partners such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The PPWG provides strategic advice to assist the Egmont Committee and the broader Egmont Group. The PPWG assists the other working groups with implementing operational findings or developing related policies or advice. As the custodian of the Egmont Group’s core documents, the PPWG ensures they remain consistent with the organization’s strategic plan and continue to be relevant to the global anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) environment.
Key Elements of the PPWG'S Mandate
Projects
Chair and Vice-Chairs
Key Elements of the PPWG's Mandate
- Exploring potential solutions to multiple issues that impede the free exchange of information between FIUs;
- Promoting the understanding of Egmont Group standards and facilitating their common interpretation and uniform application;
- Assisting FIUs in developing strong relationships with reporting entities, including through feedback on STRs and other reports and, when possible, provision of information by FIUs to reporting entities to assist in detecting suspicious activity;
- Discussing and analyzing AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory issues/actions as they impact FIUs to identify relevant AML/CFT risks, trends, and methods that would mitigate risks identified by FIUs; and
- Addressing strategic issues and matters of principle within the Egmont Group, including cooperation between FIUs and the respective working groups.
PPWG Projects
Current PPWG Projects
- Revision of the Support and Compliance Process
- FIU Funding Models
- Creating a provision for the EG to protect its interest against geopolitical incidents
- MOU multilateral information exchange
- IndiE – Understand better the FIU Boards
- Dissemination strategy options for EG documents & the respective visualization
- Guidelines for MOUs between FIUs-LEAs
- Developed a Glossary of Key Egmont Group Terminology to enhance international cooperation.
- Created the framework for the development by the Egmont Committee of the 2018-2021 Egmont Group Strategic Plan;
- Developed a new succession planning model for the Chair of the Egmont Group that entails the creation of two new Egmont Group Vice-Chair positions while maintaining the Chair’s mandate at two years;
- Reviewed the terms of reference and the selection procedure for the Chair of the Egmont Group and developed terms of reference and selection procedures for the newly created Egmont Group Vice-Chair positions;
- Revisited the Egmont Group’s Support and Compliance Process and reviewed its Procedural Trigger 3 to consider Mutual Evaluation reports (MERs) effectiveness findings when determining whether member FIUs comply with the Egmont Group requirements listed in the Egmont Group Charter and Principles for Information Exchange;
- Developed an Egmont-FATF Engagement Framework that identifies the main areas of cooperation between the two organizations and proposes actions to enhance the synergies between them;
- Looked into the matters impacting on FIU autonomy and operational independence and contributed to the development of a paper that will assist governments (decision and policymakers), FIUs, and key stakeholders in identifying the features of an independent and autonomous FIU;
- Conducted an organization-wide needs assessment for translating Egmont Group documents and prepared, together with the Egmont Group Secretariat, a budget proposal approved by the HoFIU.
Chair and Vice-Chairs
Working Group Chair
Name
Eva ten Brink, FIU-Netherlands
Chair, Policy and Procedures Working Group, 2024
Eva ten Brink is head of the Policy department of FIU-the Netherlands. She is leading a team of policy specialists and legal advisors of FIU-The Netherlands that support the FIU’s operation in all policy issues, such as compliance with legislation, development of new legislation, data sharing questions and frameworks for international cooperation. She is a strategic advisor to the management board of the FIU and represents the FIU in various policy fora and in the relationship with important stakeholders of the FIU.
Mrs. Ten Brink has been firmly involved in the work of the Egmont Group since the end of 2020. First, as an advisor to the Egmont Group’s former Chair, Mrs Verbeek-Kusters, and as an active member of the PPWG. Within the PPWG, Mrs. Ten Brink is leading the drafting of the new Support and Compliance Process for the Egmont Group and in addition, she has been the lead sponsor in the procedure for membership of a new Egmont member. She is well-versed in the international recommendations and legal instruments issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the United Nations. She has been trained as a FATF ICRG reviewer.
Mrs. Ten Brink earned a degree in Political science at Leiden University, the Netherlands and has a strong background in combatting organized crime, money laundering and terrorism financing, having worked both at the local and national levels of government. These experiences have taught her both the political aspects of AML/CFT, as well as the impact it ultimately has on local communities. She is driven to use the knowledge and skills she has gained in this field to identify opportunities and challenges to move FIUs forward.
As the PPWG Chair Mrs Ten Brink looks forward to working on policies and procedures for the Egmont Group and making the PPWG a proactive advisory body to the organization. She believes in the importance of strong relationships with external partners and observers of the Egmont Group, such as the FATF, which helps translate the latest policy developments into the Egmont Group network.
Working Group
Vice-Chairs
- Yaqoob AlMuftah – FIU Bahrain
- Representative – FIU France