MONEYVAL’s Annual Report concludes that Europe needs to improve in fight against money laundering

On 4 July, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) published its Annual Report for 2020, finding that states and jurisdictions evaluated, show on average, only moderate levels of effectiveness in their efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. As a consequence, on average, their level of compliance is below satisfactory in MONEYVAL’s opinion.

The Report states that MONEYVAL members demonstrate the best results in the areas of risk assessment, international cooperation and the use of financial intelligence. Effectiveness remains weak in a variety of areas including financial sector supervision, private sector compliance, transparency of legal persons, money laundering convictions and confiscations, financial sanctions for terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable impact on the work, particular criminal trends emerged in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns, however, authorities have successfully adapted their working methods, including in the areas of law enforcement, supervision and financial intelligence.

MONEYVAL worked jointly with the FATF to develop clarifications in the FATF Standards on the supervision and policies for transnational financial and non-financial groups.

To recap the Council of Europe is not part of the European Union and includes a broader coalition of members including the UK, Russia and Turkey alongside EU member states.

The press release can be found here.

The Annual Report can be found here.