The Council of Europe’s financial watchdog MONEYVAL has emphasized in its 2020 annual report the need for EU member states to improve their efforts against ML/TF. The report says that on an average, the member states/jurisdictions that MONEYVAL evaluated showed only a moderate level of effectiveness of AML/CFT efforts. Hence, the compliance of these members states with AML/CTF standards is below satisfactory.
On a positive note, MONEYVAL’s report highlights that member states had better compliance ratings for risk assessments, international cooperation and the use of financial intelligence. In fact, 90% of the jurisdictions excel at information exchange through international cooperation.
However, MONEYVAL identified weak AML/CFT effectiveness in the supervision of the financial sector, private sector compliance, transparency of legal persons, convictions for ML offences and confiscations of assets. There are also significant deficiencies related to the financial sanctions for terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Notably, as 2020 ended, 16 of the 19 jurisdictions that MONEYVAL evaluated in the 5th round of mutual evaluations were in the authority’s enhanced follow-up program because of poor compliance with AML/CFT standards. These jurisdictions included Albania, Andorra, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the UK Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man and Ukraine.
Source: Council of Europe