MONEYVAL: Serbia implements FATF standards; Warning about acts against NPO

AFP

Serbia has improved combat against money laundering and terrorist financing, showing significant progress in complying with the Financial Action Task Force FATF standards, but a new report by the Council of Europe's (CoE) MONEYVAL adopted in Strasbourg on Monday warned Belgrade it should not "intentionally or unintentionally use FATF Recommendations to suppress the legitimate activities of civil society."

Out of 40 FATF recommendations, Serbia does not have any considered ‘non-compliant.’ Full compliance was achieved in five recommendations, in 34 minor deficiencies were noted, and only one remains ‘partially harmonised’.

„Serbia has met general expectations – to eliminate most, if not all, shortcomings in the past five years since the last evaluation,“ the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, MONEYVAL said.

It added the country was obliged to submit a report on further compliance in two years.

The body said it would continue monitoring the situation in Serbia, recalling that „at its 61st Plenary meeting MONEYVAL took note of the information from the Chair and Executive Secretary on correspondence with UN Special Rapporteurs concerning NPO related inquiries by the FIU of Serbia.“

„The Plenary recalled the specific limitations contained in the FATF Recommendations and Methodology with regard to the powers of the FIU to seek information from reporting entities so as to avoid indiscriminate requests without a link to a suspicion of money laundering (ML) or terrorist financing (TF). The Plenary meeting called on all members to ensure that the FATF Recommendations are not intentionally or unintentionally used to suppress the legitimate activities of civil society. Henceforth, MONEYVAL shall pay particular attention to such situations arising among its membership.“

It added that „on October 13th, 2021, the MONEYVAL Secretariat was once more approached by the Serbian NPO community highlighting the unintended consequences of the application of the FATF Standards by the Serbian authorities against (non-profit organsations) NPOs, individuals associated with them and media associations. In this regard, MONEYVAL reiterates its statement made at the 61stPlenary meeting that all members should ensure that the FATF Recommendations are not intentionally or unintentionally used to suppress the legitimate activities of civil society.“

It said that in four areas on the activities of non-financial corporations and professions and international cooperation, Serbia improved its rating from „partially compliant“ to „largely compliant.“

Serbia’s rating was downgraded to ‘Partially harmonised’ because the state had not applied the new international regulations on virtual property and money in one area related to new technologies.

The body said, „significant progress“ had been made in the implementation of innovations related to virtual resources.

However, „‘strategic shortcomings’ had been discovered, due to which Serbia’s assessment in the implementation of that recommendation had been reduced to ‘partially harmonised.“

„MONEYVAL examined a number of legislative, regulatory and institutional measures introduced by Serbia, relating to obligations for lawyers and notaries, market entry conditions for accountants and real estate agents and international cooperation of financial supervisors, however, due to its procedural limitations, has not assessed the extent to which they have been effectively implemented in practice,“ the report added.

 

 

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