Jibby Ayo-Ani and Matias Quintana (Republic of Marshall Islands, Banking Commission)
The responsibility of the Banking Commission in the Marshall Islands is to “regulate the financial system for safety soundness and to deter money laundering and terrorist financing and secure access to the global financial system.” Prior to Jibby and Matias, the Commission was receiving all of their information from two financial entities though a paper-based submission process which would then be entered into a single Excel spreadsheet. This process was tedious and took time away from the analysis of anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism. JIbby and Matias created a process for entities to submit transaction and activity reports to the commission electronically and then store the data in a database. The process involved using an encrypted email so the banks could securely send reports and then setting up a Microsoft Access database to upload the reports. Ultimately, the staff at the BC is now able to perform queries to the database, perform financial intelligence analysis on the data submitted, and additionally generate and send reports to law enforcement in a concise and electronically secured fashion. In addition, they also created a website for the BC that allows new regulations and/or news to be shared publicly versus through word of mouth.