Albania has improved measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, demonstrating good progress in the level of compliance with the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards. Still, implementation has not been assessed, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL states in its new follow-up report published on Wednesday (8 June).
The report seems to directly contradict a slightly earlier report from MONEYVAL earlier this month which categorically stated “The follow-up report for Albania has found that this country has not significantly improved measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in line with the FATF Recommendations.”
Moneyval: Albania Fails to Improve in Fight against Money Laundering
The most recent statement, released on Wednesday states the opposite.
“The positive steps taken by the authorities resulted in the upgrading of the country’s ratings from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant” in two areas related to transparency and beneficial ownership (BO) of legal persons and regulation and supervision of financial institutions; as well as in further upgrading from “partially compliant” to “compliant” in the area of mutual legal assistance (MLA) regarding freezing of assets and confiscation,” it states.
The report examined Albania’s beneficial ownership register, market-entry requirements for financial institutions and the MLA concerning confiscation.
MONEYVAL has further reviewed a range of legislative, regulatory, and institutional measures introduced in these areas. Due to procedural limitations, the Council of Europe did not assess the degree to which measures have been effectively implemented in practice.
Further positive developments noted include adopting the Law “On the BO register”, which has established the necessary mechanism to obtain and keep accurate and up-to-date BO information. In addition, Albania has enhanced its legislation to ensure the accuracy of basic information of legal persons submitted to the commercial register and has also introduced new sanctions for non-compliance with the registration requirements. However, they still fall short of being considered proportionate.
Albania has taken necessary steps in the area of licencing of non-banking financial institutions to prevent criminals and their associates from either holding (or being beneficial owners of) a significant or controlling interest or holding a management function.
In the area of mutual legal assistance, Albania has established the necessary mechanisms to execute foreign confiscation orders, share confiscated assets with foreign countries and provide assistance to non-conviction-based confiscation.
All in all, Albania has met MONEYVAL’s general expectation by addressing most – if not all – technical compliance deficiencies within three years after the adoption of the mutual evaluation report.
The jurisdiction has fully complied with seven of the 40 FATF Recommendations constituting the international AML/CFT standard. There are still minor deficiencies in implementing 29 recommendations where Albania has been found “largely compliant”.
The country remains “partially compliant” with four recommendations relating to targeted financial sanctions on proliferation financing; new technologies; the transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements; and the supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions”. Albania has no “non-compliant” ratings.
Albania will remain under MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up and is expected to report on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures in two years.
It is unknown why the same institution has published two very different assessments just weeks apart. Exit has sent questions to the CoE for clarification.
