On 13 October 2023, the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) organised the Closing Conference of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) initiative “Risk-based supervision of anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism in Croatia”, in Strasbourg, France.
The event was convened with the aim of presenting and reflecting on the project results and achievements with all Project Advisory Board Members – the Croatian National Bank (CNB) and the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Authority (Hanfa), as well as the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM).

One of the main project achievements underlined during the event related to the review of both institutions’ Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorist (AML/CFT) risk-assessment frameworks. Throughout the two years of project implementation, the ECCD has closely supported the beneficiaries with updating their procedures for carrying out AML/CFT risk-based supervision of obliged entities under their purview, including by identifying all relevant data points, updating the data collection tools (annual questionnaires), as well as the risk indicators and their weightings. In addition, the project supported the authorities with the development of IT tools for the purpose of ensuring automated AML/CFT risk-assessment and risk-based supervision.
Finally, the project also provided an opportunity for both supervisory authorities to be engaged in a number of peer-to-peer exchanges with counterparts from other EU Member States, in Croatia and abroad.

Besides focusing on achievements, the project closing event was also an opportunity to gather the Croatian authorities’ feedback regarding the implementation of the technical assistance Project, including its relevance, sustainability and encountered challenges. Last but not least, the event allowed to discuss future technical assistance needs and further opportunities for cooperation between the Croatian authorities and the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division. 

The conference was held back-to-back with two workshops for CNB representatives aimed at presenting the recently developed guidance documents on assessing TF risks in CNB’s supervised sectors, as well as ML/TF risks associated with payment and e-money institutions. 

The event was organised within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument initiative “Risk-Based Supervision of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism in Croatia”, co-funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.