Financial Crime World

Bulgaria Strengthens Anti-Corruption Measures in Finance, Says Council of Europe Body

Improved Preventive Framework

Sofia, Bulgaria - The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) has released a follow-up report, praising Bulgaria for significantly improving its preventive framework to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Key Areas of Improvement

The report highlights Bulgaria’s progress in ten key areas, including:

  • National cooperation and coordination
  • Politically exposed persons
  • Money or value transfer services
  • Internal controls
  • Foreign branches and subsidiaries
  • Designated non-professional business and professions
  • Customer due diligence
  • Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements
  • Regulation and supervision of financial institutions
  • Powers of supervisors, cash couriers, and statistics

Compliant with FATF Recommendations

Since the adoption of its mutual evaluation report in May 2022, Bulgaria has taken numerous steps to strengthen its anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing systems. As a result, it is now compliant with Recommendations:

  • 14 on money or value transfer services
  • 32 on cash couriers

Only minor deficiencies remain for other Recommendations concerning areas where Bulgaria was previously rated “partially compliant”, but has now been upgraded to “largely compliant”.

Overall Compliance Rating

Out of the 40 applicable FATF Recommendations evaluated by MONEYVAL, Bulgaria is currently rated as being:

  • Compliant or largely compliant with 27
  • Partially compliant with 13
  • Non-compliant with none

Next Steps

Bulgaria is expected to report back to MONEYVAL within one year’s time on its progress in strengthening the implementation of measures to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

About MONEYVAL

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 responsible for assessing compliance with international standards to counter money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing. MONEYVAL evaluates 33 states and territories and makes recommendations to national authorities in respect of necessary improvements to their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing systems.

Full Report

The full report can be accessed at [link].