Financial Crime World

Moldovan Financial Sector Takes Major Step Forward with SPCML as Permanent Member

The Republic of Moldova has taken a significant step towards strengthening its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) regime by welcoming the Supervisory Committee for Prevention and Combating Money Laundering (SPCML) as a permanent member.

Background

Authorities have acknowledged that financial sector entities and related supervisory bodies have been lacking in guidance and regular communication towards reporting entities. This has resulted in difficulties in establishing beneficial ownership (BO) information, increasing the risk of misusing designated individuals and entities for evading sanctions.

Expected Impact

The SPCML’s membership is expected to bring about a significant shift in Moldova’s AML/CFT landscape. The committee will work closely with financial institutions, supervisory bodies, and law enforcement agencies to enhance the country’s capacity to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

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“We are committed to improving our AML/CFT regime and reducing the risks associated with financial crimes,” said a senior government official. “The SPCML’s membership is a major step forward in achieving this goal. We look forward to working closely with the committee to strengthen our financial system.”

International Cooperation

The SPCML has been actively involved in international cooperation and has demonstrated its ability to cooperate with counterparts upon their own initiative and upon requests.

Priority Actions

Moldova is also committed to implementing priority actions to strengthen its AML/CFT regime. These include:

  • Ensure Business-Specific Risk Assessment: Ensure that reporting entities prioritize assessing business-specific ML/FT threats and vulnerabilities, and apply CDD and other risk-mitigating measures that are appropriate in view of the risks identified.
  • Implement Suspicion-Based Transaction Reporting System: Implement a suspicion-based transaction reporting system as a matter of priority, and reporting entities’ internal processes aimed at identifying and reporting ML/FT suspicions are tested and supervised for effectiveness and quality of STRs produced.
  • Increase Court Cases: Challenge courts with more ML cases, relying on inferences that can properly be drawn from available evidence.
  • Enhance Law Enforcement Resources: Provide law enforcement agencies with sufficient resources and capacities to make effective use of financial intelligence (financial experts, forensic accountants, information technology hardware and IT software).
  • Full Legislative Framework Employment: Consistently employ the legislative framework to the fullest extent, to raise the effectiveness of confiscation of proceeds.

Commitment to International Cooperation

The Republic of Moldova is committed to working closely with the international community to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The country has been actively engaged in various international initiatives and agreements aimed at strengthening its AML/CFT regime.