In the context of the ongoing process of national money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment of Azerbaijan, the PGGII project on “Strengthening anti-money laundering and asset recovery in Azerbaijan” organised an online workshop on “terrorism financing risk assessment through financial flows analysis”, to respond to the authorities’ enquires in this particular technical area.
The workshop brought together 31 representatives from the Financial Monitoring Service (national Financial Intelligence Unit), law enforcement agencies and other relevant national authorities, to sharpen their knowledge on necessary techniques to better assess terrorist financing (TF) risks and understand the impact of financial flows to and from high-risk jurisdictions on related threats and vulnerabilities.
Council of Europe expertise, this initiative allowed to demonstrate to the Azerbaijani delegates the importance of collecting and analysing information on financial flows based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, with a view to better assess and mitigate TF risks. Furthermore, participants reflected on how a country can ensure that adequate systems are put 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 criminal offences.
knowledge and skills acquired through the workshop will assist the government in enriching their National Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Risk Assessment Report, and better addressing 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.