Financial Crime World

Bulgaria Urged to Improve Financial Intelligence and Fight Against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, MONEYVAL, has called on Bulgaria to take immediate action to improve its use of financial intelligence, investigation, and prosecution, as well as other measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Assessment Highlights Limited Effectiveness in Certain Areas

According to a new report published by MONEYVAL, Bulgaria achieved a moderate level of effectiveness in some areas, but demonstrated a low level of effectiveness in others. The assessment found that:

  • Bulgaria has made progress in understanding main money laundering risks
  • However, its understanding of terrorism financing risks is limited
  • Lack of comprehensive statistics hinders the authorities’ ability to react to risks
  • Inter-agency cooperation between law enforcement agencies is hindered due to a lack of necessary technical tools

Recommendations for Improvement

MONEYVAL recommended that Bulgaria:

  • Improve the use of financial intelligence, investigation, and prosecution of money laundering cases
  • Take a more systematic approach to investigating the financing aspects of terrorism-related offenses
  • Enhance risk-based supervision or monitoring of non-profit organizations that are at risk of being misused for terrorism financing

Concerns Over Prevention Measures

The report also highlighted concerns over Bulgaria’s measures to prevent criminals from entering certain sectors, including:

  • Lack of criminality or other fit-and-proper tests performed regarding postal money operators or shareholders of currency exchange offices
  • Ownership threshold for casinos triggering fit-and-proper checks is higher than permitted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

Beneficial Ownership Information Concerns

MONEYVAL expressed concerns about the accuracy of beneficial ownership information held in registers and by obliged entities. The report recommended that Bulgaria:

  • Urgently review policies to address these concerns
  • Take urgent action to improve the accuracy of beneficial ownership information

International Cooperation

Despite some technical and procedural constraints, MONEYVAL commended Bulgaria for providing generally timely and constructive assistance across a range of requests for international cooperation, including mutual legal assistance.

Full Report Available

The full report is available on the MONEYVAL website.