The Financial Monitoring Service (national Financial Intelligence Unit), law enforcement agencies and other relevant national authorities came together to learn necessary techniques to better cope with terrorist financing (TF) risks, and understand the impact of financial flows to and from high-risk jurisdictions on related threats and vulnerabilities. The workshop brought together 31 representatives of national authorities.

The Azerbaijani delegates were demonstrated how important it is to collect and analyse information based on quantitative and qualitative indicators with a view to mitigate TF risks. Furthermore, national authorities strengthened their understanding on how a country should ensure adequate systems in place to mitigate the risks of being used as a conduit for terrorist financing. The workshop also allowed to reiterate how modern payment platforms create new threats and vulnerabilities that terrorists may exploit to commit a variety of different criminal offences.

The government is currently finalising its second National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing. These knowledge and skills acquired through the workshop will assist the government to further polish their National Risk Assessment report and better address the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL).

This workshop was organised within the framework of the project “Strengthening anti-money laundering and asset recovery in Azerbaijan”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II.