Financial Crime World

Cyprus Fails to Fully Implement Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Measures, Says MONEYVAL

Despite Progress, Cyprus Falls Short in Combating Financial Crime

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing body, MONEYVAL, has criticized Cyprus for failing to fully implement measures to combat financial crime. While the country has made some progress in certain areas, significant improvements are still needed.

Areas of Concern

According to a recent evaluation, Cyprus has improved its level of compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards in specific areas, such as:

  • Non-profit organizations
  • Virtual asset services providers

However, the assessment also highlighted several shortcomings, including:

  • Inadequate powers to intercept communication content related to investigations
  • Technical deficiencies in implementing preventive measures, such as the “travel rule”
  • Failure to address terrorism financing risk exposure within the non-profit sector
  • Lack of a national action plan to address risks identified within the virtual asset services provider sector

Call to Action

MONEYVAL Chair Elżbieta Frankow-Jaśkiewicz emphasized the need for governments to step up their efforts to combat financial crime, stating:

“States should not only improve their results in identifying and freezing criminal funds. There is also an urgent need for them to greatly improve their results in confiscating and managing criminal assets.”

Limited Success in Confiscations

The evaluation found that successful confiscations of criminal assets are relatively rare, highlighting the need for governments to:

  • Enhance the powers and resources of criminal asset recovery and management offices
  • Improve results in identifying and seizing criminal assets

Next Steps

Cyprus is one of 21 countries and territories subject to MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up procedure due to its limited level of compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards. To address these concerns, the country has been urged to:

  • Take further action to improve financial crime investigation procedures
  • Strengthen national frameworks for asset management and recovery