On 16-17 November 2023, the Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) hosted a Roundtable on the Council of Europe money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) national and sectoral risk assessment methodologies. The event aimed at presenting and discussing different jurisdictions’ experiences in conducting national and sectoral risk assessments using the Council of Europe methodologies. 

Following the growing request from several beneficiary jurisdictions, the ECCD has initiated the development of its own methodological tools. In this regard, the first Methodology for carrying out a ML/TF National Risk Assessment (NRA) was designed in 2015 and further updated in 2020 and 2022. In addition, in 2021, the ECCD has developed a methodology aimed at supporting jurisdictions in conducting a proliferation financing NRA, in line with the adopted revisions to the FATF Recommendation 1.

Starting with 2020, the ECCD has also worked on the development of a number of ML/TF sectoral risk assessment (SRA) tools targeting dedicated sectors such as Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs), Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs), legal entities and legal arrangements and other, as well as specific threats (i.e. organised crime, cross border threats and corruption).

To date, these tools have been or are applied in 13 beneficiary jurisdictions. In this regard, the ECCD has convened the Roundtable discussion in order to take stock of the good practices and lessons learnt identified during the risk assessment processes, as well as to exchange experiences on the encountered challenges and needs.

The event brought together 33 representatives of Financial Intelligence Units and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism supervisors from several Council of Europe member states, as well as non-members including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Kosovo*, Kyrgyz Republic, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Türkiye. Besides sharing the experiences with their peers, participants could also benefit from presentations delivered by the Council of Europe experts touching upon current trends in assessing ML/TF risks at national and sectoral levels. Particular emphasis was put on issues related to the assessment of cross-border risks and undetected criminality. Finally, present authorities could also reflect on potential improvements to overcome practical challenges in the NRA/SRA process and manage cross-border risks, such as lack of statistics, inter-agency coordination, resources, and other related issues.