Private sector awareness on money laundering and terrorism financing risks and the means to mitigate those risks is one of the key elements of any effective national prevention system. 

As part of the ongoing support provided to Austrian authorities towards more effective anti-money laundering supervision in certain non-financial business sectors, the Council of Europe delivered a series of awareness-raising events for private sector representatives covering real estate agents, insurance intermediaries, high-value good dealers and business consultants, in different regions of Austria in September and October 2024.

This series of activities was organised in close collaboration with Austrian federal and regional authorities and Economic Chambers, who pro-actively hosted most of the events in their premises in the respective locations where the workshops were held and helped reach out to the targeted businesses. This collaboration between the EU/Council of Europe project, Austrian public authorities and Economic Chambers highlights the value of public-private cooperation for preventing money laundering and terrorism financing – which was also one of the strong messages conveyed to the participants in these workshops. 

For two days at the Styria Regional Economic Chamber in Graz, in early September, two days in the premises of the Ministry of Labour and Economy in Vienna, in early October, and one day at the Tyrol Regional Economic Chamber in Innsbruck at the end of October 2024, overall 245 stakeholders of the Austrian trade sector participated in the series of 10 awareness-raising workshops held so far, with 90% of participants present in person and 10% online. 

Austrian real estate agents, insurance intermediaries, high-value good dealers and business consultants were gathered in separate groups per business sector and per geographical area, in order to ensure targeted awareness-raising of each group, focusing on the specific money laundering and terrorism financing risks to which they may be exposed, with examples of real cases involving similar types of businesses. They benefited from specialised, practice-oriented presentations, professional guidance and lively exchanges with Council of Europe experts on existing risks, how to detect and prevent them in the most effective manner, and the importance of putting in place required preventive measures. 

The workshops provided an enabling environment for participants to freely express their concerns and queries, often related to misconceptions about their actual exposure to risks of money laundering, their expected role in the national prevention system, or the nature and concrete implications for their business of the required risk-mitigating measures to be put in place. The workshop sessions addressed the issues raised and stressed the difference between a strictly legalistic approach and an actual effort to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorism financing risks by applying a risk-based approach. These concrete and practical discussions were highly appreciated by participants as they helped them better understand the relevance of anti-money laundering for their sector, the risk factors and red flags to pay attention to and the actionable measures to be put in place. 

Complementary interventions from the federal and regional authorities, addressing obliged entities during the workshops from their own perspective as supervisors, also helped reinforce the points made. This fluid interaction between the private and public sector representatives present at the workshops also helped build awareness and trust among the different stakeholders involved in the current national anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing effort in the concerned economic sectors. This is all the timelier in view of the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation of Austria scheduled for 2025.

Following up, building on the initial results achieved and experience acquired from this series of events, the tailored awareness-raising material package will be updated and provided to the Austrian authorities for further use in continued awareness-raising activities.

These activities were organised within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project on “Regional and local authorities – Enhancing Quality of public administration and cooperation, Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission – DG REFORM.