Financial Crime World

Sweden’s Efforts to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

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Sweden has been identified as having several areas for improvement in combating money laundering and terrorist financing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This report highlights key challenges and recommendations for the country.

Challenges

  • Some types of foundations in Sweden are not obliged to register, making it difficult to track beneficial ownership.
  • Concerns about the misuse of legal persons, including false identities, corporate structures, and straw persons.
  • Lack of a comprehensive system for identifying and tracking beneficial ownership information.
  • No specific law governing trusts, although banks provide trustee services.

Strengths

  • Well-resourced Single Point of Operative Contact (SPOC) that receives and responds to requests for cooperation from other countries.
  • Network of liaison officers facilitates cooperation with other countries.

Recommendations

Priority Actions

  1. Introduce legal powers: Apply targeted financial sanctions relating to terrorism or proliferation.
  2. Establish national mechanism: Ensure adequate cooperation and coordination between ministries and operational agencies.
  3. Increase access to financial intelligence: Identify complex cases of money laundering using financial intelligence.
  4. Improve supervisors’ understanding: Enhance understanding of risks in specific sectors, supported by better tools and inter-agency communication.
  5. Conduct full risk assessment: Assess the misuse of all legal persons for money laundering and terrorist financing, and develop measures to mitigate this risk.

Conclusion

While Sweden has made progress in implementing its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regime, there are still several areas where it needs to improve to effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing.