MONEYVAL has commenced its 5^th round mutual evaluation process of North Macedonia and Romania with a high-level exchange including the Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Mr Ljupcho NIKOLOVSKI, and Sub Secretary of State, Vice President of the National office for Prevention and Control of Money Laundering of Romania, Mr Constantin Ilie APRODU, the Chair of MONEYVAL, Ms Elżbieta FRANKOW-JAŚKIEWICZ and the Director of Information Society - Action against Crime of the Council of Europe, Mr Jan KLEIJSSEN. The event launched on 14 October 2021 involved the authorities and representatives from the private sector, and was followed by mock Interviews on 15 October 2021 for each country. The training is provided by the MONEYVAL Secretariat approximately one year in advance of the onsite visit. It is aimed at familiarising all national stakeholders involved in the evaluation with the underlying standards and methodology of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the evaluation approach of MONEYVAL. The training was organized virtually and attended by representatives of the financial intelligence unit, law enforcement and supervisory authorities, as well as representatives of various types of financial institutions and non-financial sector representatives.