On 18 February 2021, the project “Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Serbia” organized online workshop on “Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism Regulatory and Oversight Approaches on Virtual Assets and Virtual Assets Service Providers.” The aim of the workshop was to support implementation of the recently adopted Law on Digital Assets in Serbia, by discussing money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with the sector and current and emerging regulatory, supervisory and oversight approaches to effectively regulate and supervise virtual assets (VAs) activities and virtual assets service providers (VASPs). The new Law will come into force in June 2021.
The workshop brought together the representatives of new supervisors in this sector, the National Bank of Serbia and Securities Commission, as well as the Administration for Prevention of Money Laundering (Financial Intelligence Unit of Serbia). The comparative analysis, good practices and recommendations presented during the workshop were compiled in a technical paper and shared with the counterparts for further reference. The event underlined the necessity to conduct a national level money laundering and terrorist risk assessment of VAs activities and activities or operations of the VASPs, on priority basis, as well as a sectoral-level risk assessment by the designated supervisory authorities, to inform their risk-based approach to supervision of this sector. The outreach activities for VASPs to raise their understanding and awareness on the money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with various VA products, services or activities, as well as their AML/CFT obligations and development and promotion of public-private partnerships among regulatory and supervisory authorities and VASPs were also recommended.
The workshop was organized within the framework of the project “Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Serbia a”, funded by Sweden, represented by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and implemented by the Council of Europe.
