Financial Crime World

Ireland’s Money Laundering Prevention Measures Under Scrutiny: Report Highlights Strengths and Areas for Improvement

Ireland’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing have been assessed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), highlighting both the country’s strengths and areas where improvement is needed.

Strengths

  • Ireland has a good understanding of the risks it faces from money laundering and terrorist financing, both domestically and internationally.
  • The country’s national risk assessment is seen as an important step in identifying potential vulnerabilities and informing policy decisions.
  • Strong coordination and cooperation between various agencies, including the Central Bank and the Department of Justice and Equality, ensures that financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions are supervised and regulated effectively.
  • Financial intelligence is another area where Ireland excels, with a range of competent agencies having access to financial information on short notice to assist in investigations.
  • The country has demonstrated its commitment to international cooperation on money laundering and terrorist financing issues, handling an increasing number of requests for assistance from other countries.

Areas for Improvement

  • Additional resources are needed to dedicate to money laundering investigations, which would help increase the chances of securing convictions in court.
  • While Ireland has prioritized counter-terrorism efforts and secured terrorism-related convictions, it should do more to pursue the prosecution of terrorist financing cases.

Recommendations

  • Implement further measures to strengthen Ireland’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
  • Dedicate additional resources to money laundering investigations to increase the chances of securing convictions in court.
  • Focus on pursuing terrorist financing cases, which is a key area for improvement.

Conclusion

While Ireland’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework is generally sound, there are areas where improvement is needed. By implementing further measures to strengthen its efforts, Ireland can continue to demonstrate its commitment to tackling these serious threats and protecting the integrity of its financial system.