CoE: Bulgaria has improved its measures against money laundering, financing of terrorism
Bulgaria has further improved its measures for tackling money laundering and combating financing of terrorism, concludes Council of Europe’s body MONEYVAL in a follow-up report released on June 17.
The report found Bulgaria to have improved, since the previous monitoring report; its compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Recommendations on targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing, on customer due diligence, on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons, on regulation and supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs), as well as on guidance and feedback.
Since the adoption of its mutual evaluation report in April 2022, Bulgaria has taken numerous steps to strengthen its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing systems.
As of today, Bulgaria has been rated as compliant or largely compliant on 32 FATF Recommendations; and as partially compliant on the remaining eight Recommendations.
The authorities did not request a re-rating for the Recommendations where Bulgaria was found partially compliant (those on confiscation and provisional measures, on terrorist financing offence, on targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation, on non-profit organisations, on correspondent banking, on new technologies, on sanctions, and on mutual legal assistance: freezing and confiscation). Therefore, this follow-up report does not cover these Recommendations.
Bulgaria is expected to report back to MONEYVAL within one year’s time on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures.
