On 3 April 2023, the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe organised a Workshop on Assessing the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) risks of obliged entities’ sectors exposed to higher ML/TF risks, as identified in the 2020 ML/TF National Risk Assessment of Lithuania. The event took place in Vilnius, Lithuania and it involved participants from the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior (FCIS), representatives of the Bar Association, as well as the Council of Europe experts. 

On this occasion, the FCIS presented the existing methodology and practice for conducting sectoral risk assessment of specific higher risk sectors, including lawyers, real estate agents and accountants. As a follow up, representatives of the Bar Association shared their experience in conducting the AML/CFT supervision of advocates, as well as their ML/TF sectoral risk assessment. In addition, the event was attended by a representative from the Spanish Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Authority (SEPBLAC) who provided an overview of the Spanish approach to developing a Sectoral ML/TF Risk Assessment Methodology. Furthermore, the Councill of Europe expert delivered a presentation on international good practices on implementation of sectoral risk assessments.

Participants used the opportunity to engage in fruitful discussions and discuss different approaches applied in conducting the sectoral risk assessments. Exchanges between participants provided valuable inputs to feed into the development of a Sectoral Risk Assessment Methodology, adapted to the Lithuanian context, as one of the upcoming outputs of this Project.

The activity was organised within the framework of  the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project on “Strengthening Risk-Based AML/CFT supervision in Lithuania, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe.