Czech Republic Making Strides in Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention: MONEYVAL Report Shows

Significant Progress Towards Compliance

Strasbourg, December 8, 2021 - The Czech Republic has made considerable progress towards full compliance with international standards for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, according to a new report by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Measures (MONEYVAL).

Improvements in Legislation, Regulation, and Institutional Framework

Following an evaluation report released in 2018, MONEYVAL requested the Czech authorities to address several shortcomings under the enhanced follow-up procedure. MONEYVAL’s updated assessment focuses on the following areas:

Sanctioning regime
Non-profit organizations
Reporting obligations
Tipping-off
Compliance of designated non-financial businesses and professions with AML/CFT obligations

The Czech Republic’s legislative, regulatory, and institutional framework has shown significant improvements. As a result, MONEYVAL has upgraded the compliance ratings for five Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The country has also achieved full compliance with one additional FATF recommendation.

Ongoing Efforts

Though the Czech Republic has made considerable progress in meeting the technical compliance requirements, more work needs to be done to fully implement international standards. MONEYVAL’s follow-up report highlights the need for further progress.

Current Compliance Status

Currently, the Czech Republic complies with six of the forty FATF recommendations that make up the international AML/CFT standard. However, minor deficiencies remain in implementing twenty-nine Recommendations, where the country is considered ’largely compliant’. Five Recommendations continue to have a ‘partially compliant’ rating. The Czech Republic currently has no non-compliant ratings.

Focus on Formal Changes

MONEYVAL’s follow-up report primarily focuses on formal changes in the legislative, regulatory, and institutional framework. The practical implementation of these reforms is not assessed in the report. The Czech Republic is expected to report back to MONEYVAL on further progress in strengthening its AML/CFT measures within one year.

For more information, please refer to the full MONEYVAL Report.

Contact

MONEYVAL Press Office Tel.: +370 5 214 8921 Email: moneyval@coe.int.