The government has today published its financial crime strategy for 2017-2020.

The strategy builds on previous work to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, which has been reinforced by the findings of the island’s MONEYVAL assessment undertaken in 2016.

That highlighted failings and listed a series of recommended actions that should be prioritised.

It said the Manx authorities should collect and maintain statistics on outgoing and incoming flows of funds in the financial sector.

There should be a reassessment of the risk posed by lawyers, the real estate sector and the quality of border controls - and a more detailed assessment of potential risks resulting from due diligence information provided to banks by trust and corporate services providers.

But perhaps the most significant area of concern was the resourcing of the Financial Crime Unit.

Moneyval’s inspectors concluded that the FCU needed to do more to investigate cases where the money being laundered was generated in another jurisdiction.

And they said that the newly-created stand-alone Financial Intelligance Unit should be more proactive in generating intelligence.

In a foreword to the strategy document released today, Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK states that the Isle of Man takes its responsibilities as an international business centre very seriously.

’The island has led the way amongst small jurisdictions in engaging with international initiatives against financial crime and in co-operating with other countries,’ writes Mr Quayle.

’As a centre dedicated to attracting quality business we have an economic as well as a moral rationale for protecting our financial systems and reputation against abuse by criminals.’

The Chief Minister notes that the outcome of the MONEYVAL assessment largely confirmed the findings of the island’s own national risk assessment, identifying the resourcing of financial intelligence gathering and investigations as areas for improvement.

’Addressing these points is a matter of national priority for my government and I am pleased that significant progress has already been made.’

Mr Quayle concludes: ’I trust that the production of this overarching financial crime strategy is further evidence of the Isle of Man’s firm commitment to a "zero tolerance" approach to financial crime.’

MONEYVAL is the term by which, both commonly and officially, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism is known. Moneyval a monitoring body of the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe is not a European Union institution.More on this story in Tuesday’s Isle of Man Examiner