The Council of Europe’s financial watchdog MONEYVAL has issued its latest reports on the AML/CFT frameworks in Albania, Hungary, Moldova and Slovenia. Overall, all four jurisdictions have demonstrated progress in their AML/CFT frameworks, with improved compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. Some specific highlights from these reports are shared below.
Albania
Albania has achieved an improvement in its compliance rating, from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant”, in two areas. The areas are transparency and beneficial ownership (BO) of legal persons, and regulation and supervision of financial institutions. Additionally, the jurisdiction’s rating has improved from “partially compliant” to “compliant” for mutual legal assistance for asset freezing and confiscation. Moreover, Albania is now fully compliant with seven of the 40 FATF recommendations. However, the jurisdiction is only “partially compliant” with four recommendations. These are related to sanctions on proliferation financing, new technologies, transparency and BO of legal arrangements, and the supervision of designated non-financial businesses. As such, Albania will remain under MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up program.
Hungary
Hungary’s compliance status has also enhanced from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant” in three areas. These areas are correspondent banking relationships, internal controls in financial institutions, and transparency and BO of legal persons. In particular, Hungary has implemented enhanced due diligence requirements for correspondent banking relationships, introduced obligations for financial groups, and amended its Companies register. The jurisdiction is “fully compliant” with 5, “largely compliant” with 32, and “partially compliant” with 3 of the 40 FATF recommendations. MONEYVAL has decided to keep Hungary in its enhanced follow-up program.
Moldova
MONEYVAL has upgraded Moldova’s compliance ratings from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant” in four areas. The areas are related to designated non-financial businesses, customer due diligence, politically exposed persons (PEPs), and higher risk countries. Unfortunately, the jurisdiction’s compliance in the area of new technologies (virtual assets) has dropped from “largely compliant” to “non-compliant”. There are also some deficiencies related to the definition of the close associates of PEPs, and absent customer due diligence requirements in some areas.
Slovenia
Slovenia’s status in the area of ML/TF risk assessment has improved from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant”, as it now includes the virtual assets sector and non-profit organizations. However, there are deficiencies in the criminalization of TF, even 5 years after the adoption of the Mutual Evaluation Report. The authority has thus decided to apply its Compliance Enhancing Procedures (CEPs) on Slovenia. The jurisdiction will also remain in MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up program.
Source: Council of Europe: Slovenia, Hungary, Albania, Moldova
