In order to comply with international commitments in the fight against terrorist financing and money laundering, banking and financial operators in Costa Rica were trained on the implementation of procedures to immediately freeze terrorist assets.
In addition, a simulation was performed. It aimed to generate a statement to freeze assets immediately, so that all entities reviewed their customers’ databases to detect links with terrorist financing and and they had to freeze funds, financial products and other assets.
According to Román Chavarria, these results will be presented to the GAFILAT, which aims to demonstrate the compliance with a system able to detect and freeze funds in less than 48 hours.
Guillermo Araya, director of the Costa Rican Drug Institute, declared that Costa Rica meets the international standards and there is a law that allows to freeze assets and funds immediately and many countries can’t do that yet.
Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Financial Intelligence Unit, the National Financial System, the National Register, judges of the Republic and procurators participated in this exercise.