VATICAN CITY
4-Traders
MONEYVAL – Committee of Experts on the Evaluation : Council of Europe issues report assessing progress by the Holy See on measures to combat money laundering
Press release – DC160(2013)
Council of Europe issues report assessing progress by the Holy See on measures to combat money laundering
Strasbourg, 12.12.2013 – The Council of Europe’s Committee of experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism ( MONEYVAL) today published a report presented by the Holy See (including the Vatican City State) concerning the progress it has made to remedy the deficiencies identified by MONEYVAL in its first mutual evaluation report in 2012.
The report was published together with a detailed assessment of this progress by MONEYVAL with regard to the 16 core and key Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Recommendations 2003. Both documents were adopted this week at MONEYVAL´S 43rd plenary meeting, and take into account developments up to 30 November 2013.
MONEYVAL concludes that a very wide range of legislative and other measures have been taken in a short time by the Holy See to remedy deficiencies identified by the 2012 MONEYVAL report in all areas of the AML/CFT framework, though certain issues still need to be addressed. The following are its main findings:
– The legal structure for criminalising money laundering and terrorist financing, and related confiscation, is in place and much improved but still needs to be tested in practice.
– A new and more comprehensive system for freezing terrorist assets pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1373 is now operational.
– There are review processes in place to ensure that the financial institutions within the Holy See/Vatican City State know who their account holders are and that full customer identification and verification measures are applied to them, in line with international standards. The process is being conducted under the supervision of the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA). It is planned to be completed by the first quarter of 2014. It has resulted in accounts being closed and a significant number of suspicious transaction reports in 2013. These are being analysed by the FIA and, where appropriate, referred to the Promoter of Justice.
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