Financial Crime World

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Albania’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing Efforts: Areas for Improvement

Introduction

A recent report evaluating Albania’s implementation of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures has highlighted several areas where improvement is needed.

Key Findings

The report provides a comprehensive assessment of Albania’s AML/CFT framework, rating various recommendations as either “Partially Compliant” (PC) or “Low Compliance” (LC). Some of the key findings include:

  • Lack of Clear Guidelines: Recommendation 26, rated PC due to moderate deficiencies in Albania’s AML/CFT measures, notes that there is a lack of clear guidelines on what constitutes a significant change or development in management and operations.
    • Examples:
      • Limited examples provided by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) for non-bank financial institutions to report events or developments
  • Inadequate Provisions: Recommendation 28, also rated PC due to various deficiencies, highlights inadequate provisions for casinos and online gaming companies, including:
    • Lack of explicit mention of criminal associates and indirect shareholders/board of directors
    • Limited measures to prevent criminals from controlling or managing designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs)
  • Insufficient Sanctions: Recommendation 35, initially rated PC but re-rated to LC due to improvements made by Albania, notes that sanctions available for failure by reporting entities to provide information to supervisors are not unequivocally clear, and the range of sanctions that can be imposed on reporting entities for breaches of AML/CFT obligations is not sufficiently proportionate or dissuasive.

Response from Albania

In response to these findings, Albania has amended the AML/CFT Law to address some of the deficiencies. However, the report notes that further improvements are needed.

Areas for Improvement

To summarize, the report highlights several areas where Albania needs to improve its AML/CFT measures, including:

  1. Clear Guidelines: Provide clear guidelines on what constitutes a significant change or development in management and operations.
  2. Adequate Provisions: Ensure adequate provisions for casinos and online gaming companies, including explicit mention of criminal associates and indirect shareholders/board of directors.
  3. Effective Measures: Implement effective measures to prevent criminals from controlling or managing DNFBPs.
  4. Proportionate Sanctions: Establish a proportionate range of sanctions available for reporting entities and their directors/senior management.

Conclusion

While Albania has made some improvements in its AML/CFT efforts, there is still work to be done to ensure that the country’s framework meets international standards.