Press release
14.06.2021
According to the Minister of Finance Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, Mäeker has participated in solving many international money laundering cases and adds the expected expertise to the FIU. “Mäeker is the top expert in the field, who is very well aware of the business activities and risk management of market participants in the Estonian financial sector and also has extensive experience of international cooperation. A very important task of the new director, when looking ahead, is the development of the function of strategic data and risk analysis", added Keit Pentus-Rosimannus.
"The biggest challenges for the upcoming years at the FIU are the establishment of the function of strategic analysis of money laundering and terrorist financing and sharing the results with competent institutions and the private sector," said Matis Mäeker, the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit. "The capacity of strategic analysis sets the direction for the state for dealing with actual risks related to preventing money-laundering and terrorist financing." The FIU also faces the automation of processes and creating intelligent solutions for gathering, analysing and forwarding of financial intelligence information to investigation authorities. "Money laundering and terrorist financing are cross-border phenomena. Therefore, we must stay informed about new trends and tendencies, as well as new ways of detecting crime. The FIU can be the competence centre who trains both the public and private sector and helps to coordinate the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in Estonia," Mäeker added when taking the office.
Mäeker has since 2015 been a certified evaluator of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, MONEYVAL, and of the inter-governmental task force on money laundering prevention FATF. He has since January 2020 been a member of the MONEYVAL Bureau. Matis Mäeker is an alternate Member of the Anti-Money Laundering Standing Committee of the European Banking Authority. He has also published many articles on the prevention of money laundering. Matis Mäeker has a Master's degree in Law, from the University of Tartu.
The government decided to appoint Matis Mäeker as the new Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit on 14 May. In its decision, the government approached from the results of the public competition, conducted by the Top Civil Service Excellence Centre of the Government Office.
Since 1 January 2020, the Financial Intelligence Unit is an independent government agency in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and its main task is the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing in Estonia.