The Council of Europe through the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” in Central Asia (CA TAEC) supported the supervisory authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan to improve their capacities in risk-based supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFPBs) in anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT) field by organising three workshops in Astana on 26-29 March 2024.

The first workshop on 26-27 March 2024 brought 15 representatives from seven supervisory authorities including the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA), Agency for Protection and Development of Competition, Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), Ministry of Trade and Integration, Ministry of Tourism and Sport, Ministry of Finance (Committee of the Internal Public Audit) and Ministry of Justice. Two other workshops on 28 and 29 March were attended by around 130 (77 in person and more than 50 online) representatives of DNFPBs including accountants, lessors, jewellers, realtors, legal consultants, lawyers, notaries, commodity exchanges, gambling sector and auditors. 

The activities were organised to address the shortcomings identified by the 2023 Mutual Evaluation Report of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MER) by the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) as well as advancing the Concept for the Development of Financial Monitoring for 2022-2026. 

Through these activities the supervisory authorities of Kazakhstan were able to advance their understanding of the FATF standards and obligations for effective and risk-based supervision of DNFBPs. Moreover, the representatives of the DNFBPs also improved their understanding regarding their obligations by enhancing their awareness on international good practices in meeting their obligations.

Both the supervisory entities and DNFBPs in the Republic of Kazakhstan have improved their understanding of ML/TF risks and effective application of mitigation measures, which leads to enhanced AML/CTF and less economic crime.

This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” in the framework of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2024, a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the latter. The Action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan).