Financial Crime World

Albania Takes Major Steps in Combating Terrorism Financing with Strengthened Transparency and Regulation

In a significant move to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, Albania has made substantial progress in improving its measures, according to a follow-up report released by MONEYVAL.

Upgraded Compliance with FATF Recommendations

The country has upgraded its compliance with two key Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations:

  • Transparency: Albania has improved transparency regarding the beneficial ownership of legal arrangements.
  • Regulation and Supervision: The country has strengthened regulations and supervision over designated non-financial businesses and professions.

Concrete Steps Taken

Since June 2022, Albania has taken concrete steps to address critical shortcomings, including:

  • Bringing trustees under anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) requirements
  • Streamlining access to beneficial ownership information for competent authorities
  • Strengthening regulations and supervision over notaries and real estate agents
  • Empowering licensing authorities to revoke licenses for non-compliance with AML/CFT legislation

Progress in Addressing Technical Compliance Shortcomings

As a result, Albania has made significant progress in addressing technical compliance shortcomings identified in its 2018 Mutual Evaluation Report. The country currently rates highly on MONEYVAL’s scale, with:

  • 6 recommendations fully compliant
  • 31 largely compliant
  • 2 partially compliant
  • 1 not applicable

MONEYVAL: A Monitoring Body of the Council of Europe

The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) is a monitoring body of the Council of Europe tasked with assessing compliance with international standards to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. MONEYVAL evaluates 33 states and territories and provides recommendations for national authorities to improve their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing systems.

Access the Full Report

The full report is available online.