Financial Crime World

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ALBANIA MAKES PROGRESS IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY, REPORT SAYS

Albania has made significant improvements in its measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, according to a new report by the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL. The country has upgraded its ratings from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant” in two areas related to transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons and regulation and supervision of financial institutions.

Progress Made

The report examined Albania’s beneficial ownership register, market entry requirements for financial institutions, and mutual legal assistance regarding freezing of assets and confiscation. MONEYVAL has reviewed a range of legislative, regulatory, and institutional measures introduced in these areas.

  • The country has established a mechanism to obtain and keep accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information through the adoption of the Law “On the BO register”.
  • Albania has enhanced its legislation to ensure the accuracy of basic information of legal persons submitted to the Commercial register.
  • New sanctions have been introduced for non-compliance with registration requirements.

Albania has also taken steps in the area of licensing non-banking financial institutions to prevent criminals from holding significant or controlling interests. In mutual legal assistance, the country has established mechanisms to execute foreign confiscation orders and share confiscated assets with foreign countries.

Progress on Technical Compliance Deficiencies

The report notes that Albania has addressed most technical compliance deficiencies within three years after the adoption of the mutual evaluation report. The jurisdiction has achieved full compliance with seven of the 40 FATF Recommendations constituting the international anti-money laundering/combating financing of terrorism standard.

Areas for Improvement

However, there are still minor deficiencies in the implementation of 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 and other areas.

Next Steps

Albania will remain under MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up and is expected to report back on progress in strengthening its implementation of anti-money laundering/combating financing of terrorism measures in two years’ time.