The Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe organised a two-day training focused on enhancing risk-based anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT) supervision within Serbia’s real estate sector. The training gathered 30 policy makers and market inspectors, and it encompassed both discussion on overall supervisory policy documents and training of inspectors on the practical aspects of risk-based AML/CFT supervision.
During the first part of the training, the Council of Europe experts presented the analysis of existing supervisory tools, as well as concrete recommendations for the update of the questionnaires, risk matrices, plans of control and lists of indicators. Provided recommendations aimed to adjust the supervisory framework to the findings of the latest National Risk Assessment of Serbia, sectorial risk assessment of the real estate sector and the legal amendments foreseeing new requirements from reporting entities in this sector, but also to calibrate it to the existing resources within the supervisory authority – Ministry of Domestic and Foreign Trade.
In the second part of the training, participants benefited from the training on step-by step approach to off-site and on-site supervision, sampling of documentation and transactions for inspection, identification of red flags that should prompt regulatory reaction, but also on focusing the inspection activities on major ML/TF risks and conducting thematic inspections when a new ML/TF risk or trend is identified within the sector. The training also included work on real-life based case studies, where inspectors had the chance to apply proposed approaches.
This training is part of the broader effort of the Council of Europe to respond to specific risks of money laundering in non-financial sector of Serbia, by enhancing internal policies and capacities of supervisory authorities and providing them with methodological and technical tools which should raise the effectiveness of the AML/CFT supervision.
The activity has taken place within the Project “Countering Economic Crime in Serbia”, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, and implemented by the Council of Europe.
