In order to promote the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, and improve the quality of anti-money laundering works in Macao SAR, GIF organized the 1st “Outstanding STR Case Award” Ceremony for the banking sector, with an aim to enrich the quality of STR cases, and effectively respond to the new challenges faced by anti-money laundering works. Through the recognition and encouragement to the relevant banks of their outstanding STR cases, GIF hopes to continually improve the  risk prevention and awareness of potential financial crimes in banking sector, and deepen their overall understanding of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. The evaluation committee is composed of the director and deputy director from GIF, and one supervisor each from GIF, AMCM and PJ. The evaluation was carried out anonymously. The best STR case was selected based on various criteria, including the identification and analysis process of suspicious transactions and the various measures taken by the reporting entities to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, the typologies involved and the referential value of the STR case.

The winner of the best STR case of the 1st “Outstanding STR Case Award” was Bank of China Limited (Macau Branch). The prize was presented by GIF in the "AML/CFT Seminar" held by AMCM on 1^st December 2023. The representative of the award-winning institution was invited to make a presentation of the best STR case in the seminar. It was hoped that the banking practitioners could learn from the sharing of this best STR case and have a deeper understanding on effective identification of suspicious transaction, and therefore strengthen their internal risk control and various measures for better prevention and suppression of potential financial crimes.
 
Through this type of award activity, GIF aims to successively promote the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing in Macao so as to encourage reporting entities and relevant practitioners to have sustainable improvement in the quality of STR reports. In addition, GIF aims to encourage submission of more reasonable STR cases, deepen the knowledge of different sectors on preventive measures against money laundering and counter-terrorism financing as well as increase the public awareness of money laundering and terrorist financing.