The Council of Europe in cooperation with the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia (FMS - Financial Intelligence Unit of Georgia) organised an online training on “Efficient implementation of anti-money laundering/countering financing of terrorism requirements”.
This event aimed at raising the awareness of competent authorities and the private sector (commercial banks, microfinance organisations) on current requirements on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), and to enhance the sector’s capacity in identifying and managing money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/FT) risks.
During the training, participants reflected on global AML/CFT threats, learned about the importance and implications of following a risk-based approach and how to conduct risk assessments, discussed questions related to customer identification and verification, ongoing monitoring as well as reporting mechanisms of suspicious transactions. The representatives of the Financial Monitoring Service analysed the risks identified in the Money laundering/financing of terrorism (ML/FT) Risk Assessment Report of Georgia adopted in 2019, thus ensuring the direct linkage of the training contents with the current Georgian reality.
Through a creative use of the practical options offered by the online training format, participants benefited from breakout group discussions and lively exchanges with the international Council of Europe experts as well as their own peers. They discussed specific questions related to their own AML/CFT knowledge, experience, challenges and solutions. The main points identified by each group were shared and analysed with the audience and the experts, thus ensuring the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer and ownership of the training contents.
This training is part of a series of activities designed to support more effective and efficient compliance of Georgian financial institutions with international AML/CFT requirements.
It was organised within the EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance Project “Enhancing the systems of prevention and combating corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing in Georgia” (PGG II-Georgia), launched in January 2019.
