Albania Strengthens Measures Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
TIRANA, ALBANIA - In a significant development, MONEYVAL has released a follow-up report concluding that Albania has made substantial progress in improving its compliance with international standards against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Key Recommendations Addressed
According to the report, Albania has taken significant steps to address key recommendations related to transparency of legal arrangements and regulation and supervision of non-financial institutions. Specifically:
- Transparency of Legal Arrangements: Albania has improved measures for regulating and supervising notaries and real estate agents.
- Regulation and Supervision of Non-Financial Institutions: The licensing authority for notaries now has the power to revoke licenses in case of infringement of anti-money laundering (AML)/counter-terrorist financing (CFT) legislation, while risk-based supervision has been introduced over real estate agents.
Progress Towards Compliance
As a result of these efforts, Albania has made progress in addressing most of the technical compliance shortcomings identified in its 2018 Mutual Evaluation Report. Currently:
- Compliant: 6 recommendations
- Largely Compliant: 31 recommendations
- Partially Compliant: 2 recommendations
- Not Applicable: 1 recommendation
Future Progress
Albania is expected to report back to MONEYVAL in two years on further progress made towards strengthening its AML/CFT system.
About MONEYVAL
MONEYVAL, a monitoring body of the Council of Europe, evaluates 33 states and territories for compliance with international standards against money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing. The Committee makes recommendations to national authorities for necessary improvements to their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing systems.