Financial Crime World

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Slovakia’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Framework Assessment

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Overview of Compliance and Effectiveness

Slovakia has made significant improvements in its AML/CFT framework since the last evaluation. However, there are still major and fundamental improvements needed to demonstrate that the system cannot be used for money laundering/terrorism financing (ML/TF) and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Key Findings

  • Significant progress in enhancing the legal framework
  • Issues remain in customer due diligence, suspicious transactions reporting, higher risk countries, and the analysis function of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)

Technical Compliance

The legal framework has been enhanced in several aspects, such as transparency of legal persons and arrangements. However, there are still issues to be addressed.

Areas for Improvement

  • Customer due diligence
  • Suspicious transactions reporting
  • Higher risk countries
  • Analysis function of the FIU

Assessment of Risk, Coordination, and Policy Setting

The National Risk Assessment (NRA) was approved by the Government in May 2019. However, there are concerns about the accuracy and reasonableness of the conclusions of the NRA.

Concerns with the NRA

  • Time gap between statistical data used and the moment of adoption
  • Certain risks not receiving significant attention

Action Plan for Combating ML/TF

The main document adopted to address identified ML/TF risks is the “Action plan for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction for the period 2019 – 2022”.

Key Measures

  • Development of new regulations
  • Enhancement of customer due diligence procedures
  • Improvement of suspicious transactions reporting systems

International Cooperation

International cooperation is taking place effectively at a large extent.

Examples of Effective Cooperation

  • Interdepartmental Expert Coordination Body on Combating Crime (MEKO) demonstrated its effectiveness in coordinating the development and implementation of policies and activities to combat ML/TF.