Council of Europe

Plenary and Bureau meetings

MONEYVAL's meetings take place in Strasbourg (France) and they usually last 5 days. The number of annual plenary meetings is 3 to 4, depending on whether or not other large meetings are organised. Bureau meetings are usually organised shortly before or in parallel to Plenary meetings.

The evaluation work

All MONEYVAL evaluations are carried out in accordance with the programme approved by the MONEYVAL committee. Several evaluations are conducted each year. These are undertaken by multidisciplinary teams composed typically of 4 experts (a legal expert, two financial experts and a law enforcement expert). These teams are assisted by a member of the MONEYVAL Secretariat.

The team normally spends between 8 and 10 days on site to meet with practitioners from the various sectors concerned: ministries and coordination bodies; administrative/tax, judicial, law enforcement, supervisory bodies, Customs and other authorities including the Financial Intelligence Unit; bodies representing the relevant financial sectors (banks, insurance, securities markets etc.) and non-financial sectors and private entities (e.g. brokers, currency exchange bureaus, lawyers, notaries, auditors, traders in precious metals and stones etc.).

During the following weeks, a report is drafted and finalised for it to be discussed and adopted during one of the plenary meetings of the committee, normally no later than 1 year after the on-site visit.

Besides the country assessment reports, the Committee also examines other types of country reports, as part of its monitoring work.
 

Under the 4th cycle of evaluations

Regular follow-up: applies where the mutual evaluation report shows there are significant deficiencies in the country’s AML/CFT system. This process is thus applied in two circumstances: where any of Recommendations 1, 5, 10, 13 or Special Recommendations II or IV are rated either PC or NC or where the Plenary so decides. To be removed from regular follow-up the plenary has to be satisfied normally on a desk review that the progress achieved in respect of the core and key Recommendations would be at the level of or at a level essentially equivalent to a C or LC rating.

The normal first step in the follow-up process requires an assessed country to report back to the plenary two years after the 4th round MER is adopted and provide information on the actions it has taken or is taking to address the factors/deficiencies underlying any of the 40 + 9 Recommendations that are rated partially compliant (PC) or non-compliant (NC).

The process for consideration of an application of country to move from regular follow-up to biennial updates is as follows. The country provides a full report, and all necessary laws, regulations and other information, including relevant data and information for assessing effectiveness, at least two months before the Plenary at which it would seek to be removed from regular follow-up. The Secretariat then prepare a more detailed analysis of the progress made by the country for the following Plenary. This report would analyse the actions taken by the country to resolve the deficiencies/factors underlying each of the above Recommendations that was rated PC or NC, and would indicate the extent to which the deficiencies had been resolved, and indicate for each relevant Recommendation whether it believed sufficient action had been taken. In assessing whether sufficient progress had been made, effectiveness would be taken into account (to the extent possible).

Enhanced follow-up: the additional, graduated steps in the follow–up policy for 4th round mutual evaluations (enhanced follow-up) are the steps that are taken generally in MONEYVAL in respect of countries undergoing evaluation by MONEYVAL which are not in compliance with the Reference Documents or the recommendations in mutual evaluation reports (traditionally known as “Compliance Enhancing Procedures”).

Biennial update: no later than two years after the discussion of their 4th round MER, assessed countries, which do not go into regular or enhanced follow-up, must provide a succinct update describing the new measures that have been adopted and implemented to deal with the identified deficiencies in relation to any of the 40 + 9 Recommendations that are rated partially compliant (PC) or noncompliant (NC).

Compliance reports: submitted in the framework of the compliance enhancing procedure, when serious insufficiencies have been detected as a result of the evaluation process and progress reporting. The country concerned is then given a deadline to implement the recommendations before further steps are taken to make it comply with the recommendations of MONEYVAL. This process was also used for the earlier cycles of evaluations.

Under the 3rd cycle of evaluations

Progress reports: one year after the adoption of the evaluation report, each country submits a progress report describing the new measures it has adopted in the meantime; it focuses on the implementation of the findings of the evaluation report. If the progress report is adopted by the plenary the country is required to submit updates every two years.

Other training seminars and events

In addition, MONEYVAL also organises events aimed at exchanging experience and preparing the country experts acting as evaluators in the mutual evaluation process: 

Typologies meetings: they allow to discuss the current money laundering and terrorist financing trends and techniques, to exchange experience and best practices, to network with colleagues from other countries etc.
Training seminars for evaluators