Jan.03, 2010, 14:26 IST

India has entered into a pact with three major economies — Russia, Malaysia and Brazil — to ensure mutual flow of information pertaining to money laundering and terror funding.

Negotiations to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with more than 30 other countries is under process for enhancing international cooperation in fighting illegal routing of money for terror and hawala-like operations, a senior finance ministry official said.

India has also signed similar MoUs with Mauritius and the Philippines in 2008.

The MoUs will enable the country's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) — a government agency to investigate and disseminate information between financial and law enforcement agencies for identification of suspicious money laundering — to share information with foreign FIUs whenever considered necessary and reciprocally obtain information from them on money laundering activities, the official said.

This year, India received 69 requests of information from foreign financial intelligence units while it sent 17 such requests to other countries.

The government has also established Joint Working Groups (JWG) — comprising senior officials from enforcement agencies — with a number of countries like the US, Germany, the UK and Russia on various operational issues relating to terrorism and other crimes including money laundering and drug trafficking.

A joint meeting was held with Russia this year in this regard, the official added. The Indian FIU (FIU-IND) also screens and processes requests from foreign FIUs, disseminates information apart from establishing and maintaining relationship with them. It also facilitates, administers and negotiates Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the foreign FIUs.

According to established government guidelines, the MoU envisages that information or documents obtained from the respective authorities will not be disseminated to any third party, nor be used for administrative, prosecutorial or judicial purposes without prior consent of the disclosing authority.

The information acquired will be treated as confidential and will be subject to official secrecy. The MoU also provides that authorities will jointly arrange, consistent with the legislation of their respective countries, for acceptable procedures of communication and will consult each other for the purpose of implementing the Memorandum, the guidelines said.

The guidelines further added that the authorities would not be under any obligation to give assistance if judicial proceedings have already been initiated concerning the same facts to which the request is related. Further, the MoU may be amended or revoked at any time.