Financial Crime World

Slovenia Falls Short on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Efforts

Ljubljana, Slovenia - MONEYVAL Issues Critical Report

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) monitoring body, MONEYVAL, has issued a critical report on Slovenia’s progress in addressing technical compliance deficiencies. According to the 4th Enhanced Follow-up Report, Slovenia has made significant progress since its 2017 Mutual Evaluation Report (MER), but still falls short in three areas.

Partially Compliant Areas

Despite efforts, Slovenia remains partially compliant with international standards in three areas:

  • R.5: Beneficial ownership
  • R.15: Customer due diligence
  • R.32: Designated non-financial business and professions

These areas are critical to effective AML/CFT measures, and Slovenia’s failure to meet international standards raises concerns about the effectiveness of its efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Failure to Meet International Standards

Under MONEYVAL’s Rules of Procedure, countries are expected to address most technical compliance deficiencies within three years of adopting their MER. Slovenia adopted its 2017 MER in June 2017, with the expectation that it would address most deficiencies by April 2021. However, despite progress, the country has not met this goal.

Next Steps

The Plenary held a discussion on monitoring steps and agreed to apply step one of Compliance Enhancing Procedures, inviting the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to send a letter to Slovenia’s relevant minister, highlighting non-compliance with reference documents and urging corrective measures.

Slovenia will remain in enhanced follow-up and is expected to report back to MONEYVAL in one year’s time, demonstrating its progress in strengthening AML/CFT measures.

Glossary of Acronyms

  • AML: Anti-money laundering
  • BO: Beneficial ownership
  • CDD: Customer due diligence
  • CFT: Countering the financing of terrorism
  • DNFBP: Designated non-financial business and professions
  • FI: Financial institutions
  • FT: Financing of terrorism
  • LC: Largely compliant
  • ML: Money laundering
  • NGOs: Non-governmental organizations
  • NPOs: Non-profit organizations
  • NRA: National risk assessment
  • OMLP: Office for Money Laundering Prevention
  • PC: Partially compliant
  • PF: Proliferation financing
  • R: Recommendation
  • STR: Suspicious transaction report
  • TFS: Targeted financial sanctions
  • UNSCR: United Nations Security Council Resolutions