MONEYVAL, the AML watchdog of the Council of Europe (COE), recently recognized the progress in Lithuania’s AML efforts. In its review, MONEYVAL concluded that Lithuanian authorities have significantly improved their understanding of ML/TF risks to the country. The country has also taken effective AML measures to fight ML/TF. Therefore, the compliance rating of Lithuania in this area has improved over its previous evaluations by MONEYVAL.
In 2018, MONEYVAL had identified several deficiencies in Lithuania’s AML/CFT measures. Therefore, since the 2018 evaluation, MONEYVAL has required Lithuania to report on enhanced follow-up procedure. MONEYVAL’s recent follow-up report has evaluated the overall institutional and legal framework of Lithuania’s AML/CFT policies. It has also assessed how well Lithuania has implemented the newly issued international requirements for virtual assets and their providers. The Lithuanian AML/CFT framework is still deficient in the virtual assets area due to which the country’s rating in this area has dropped from “largely compliant” to “partially compliant”.
In the latest report, Lithuania showed full compliance with only 8 of the 40 FATF Recommendations on AML/CFT. The country still showed some major deficiencies related to 8 other recommendations and minor deficiencies in the remaining areas. Due to this, MONEYVAL has extended Lithuania’s stay in the enhanced follow-up process so the country’s AML/CFT policies can be made stronger.
