The Council of Europe's anti-money laundering body (MONEYVAL) today called on European governments to improve the implementation of measures for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing in the legal, financial and law enforcement fields.
In its annual report, published today, MONEYVAL reports that the countries it evaluates have broadly improved their technical compliance with international standards by enacting and reforming laws and regulations, in particular in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing offences.
However, MONEYVAL concludes that law enforcement and prosecutors need to do more in achieving serious money laundering convictions and in producing confiscation orders that have a deterrent effect in offences generating major proceeds. The Committee also stresses that there are still very few convictions of those third parties who launder proceeds on behalf of organised crime.
"Last week, the G8 leaders publicly committed to 8 principles for fighting money laundering and tax evasion, and to report on the action they take. All European states should follow these principles. In a Europe emerging from a global financial crisis, it is more important than ever that financial institutions do not accept clients or transactions unless they know who they are dealing with and the source of the funds that they are handling", said the Chair of MONEYVAL, Anton Bartolo. (more...)
