The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL has published follow-up reports on Azerbaijan, Croatia and Estonia, reassessing how closely they meet international standards on tackling money laundering and terrorist financing.
MONEYVAL reviewed each country’s “technical compliance” with the 40 recommendations set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global standard-setter for preventing illicit finance, the Council of Europe said on Friday.
Azerbaijan’s compliance ratings were upgraded on seven FATF recommendations after changes covering non-profit organisations, money or value transfer services, wire transfers, beneficial ownership information for companies, supervision of financial institutions, statistics, and official guidance and feedback for relevant market participants.
Azerbaijan is now rated compliant on eight FATF recommendations, largely compliant on 28, and partially compliant on four.
Croatia was found to have taken steps to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework, but some shortcomings remain.
The report notes progress in addressing technical compliance deficiencies linked to how FATF standards apply to non-profit organisations.
Croatia is rated compliant on seven FATF recommendations, largely compliant on 27, and partially compliant on three.
Estonia: sanctions framework updated
Estonia improved measures to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, MONEYVAL said.
It reported progress in strengthening Estonia’s legal and institutional framework for targeted financial sanctions connected to proliferation financing and to new technologies.
Estonia is rated compliant on seven FATF recommendations, largely compliant on 21, and partially compliant on 12, MONEYVAL added.
