Following previous efforts towards the assessment of money laundering and terrorism financing risks related to virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Police Force Praesidium (FIU) of the Slovak Republic has developed an initial understanding of current threats and vulnerabilities related to the registration of virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Further supporting this effort, the Project provided guidance and advice on the regulation of VASPs in the Slovak Republic, at a workshop organised in Bratislava on the 10th of November 2023. 

The workshop aimed to discuss the current Slovak legislative framework for VASPs, against the latest international standards and existing regulatory practices, and provide recommendations for its improvement. It intended to help the Slovak authorities in their ongoing efforts to identify and implement appropriate mitigating measures to address the money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks related to virtual assets (VAs) and VASPs.

The FIU representative in charge of this area presented the results of the preliminary ML/TF risk assessment conducted internally, taking into account the current statistics and regulatory status of VASPs in the country. These insights about the current national situation helped highlight several threats as well as vulnerabilities of the existing framework, with a high number of registered VASPs, minimal criteria for registration and a relatively low level of regulation. The Council of Europe provided an overview of the current international landscape, good practices and different available options for the regulation of VASPs. Following the presentations, an engaging discussion helped emphasise the need for advancing the Slovak framework in this area. Efforts should continue to be made in this direction, in order to reduce the level of ML/TF risk related to VAs and VASPs in the country but also in Europe and worldwide, given the intrinsically international and volatile nature of virtual assets. The Slovak FIU requested further support from the Council of Europe towards this objective.  

This workshop was organised in the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Enhancing the effectiveness of the AML Framework in Slovakia” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.