In a new report the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL encourages Estonia to further strengthen measures to combat money laundering (ML) and financing of terrorism (FT), among others by re-enforcing the capacities and performance of the private sector and improving its law enforcement efforts in this field. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the country’s level of compliance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at the time of the onsite visit in May 2022.
MONEYVAL acknowledges that the country has demonstrated a substantial level of effectiveness in international cooperation, use of financial intelligence and implementation of the United Nations targeted financial sanctions on proliferation financing. The report finds that further improvements are needed in enhancing the understanding of ML/TF risks, effectiveness of ML and TF investigations and prosecutions, confiscation of proceeds of crime, implementation of targeted financial sanctions on TF, application of AML/CFT preventative measures by the private sector, supervision and transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements.
The report concludes that although there are some technical and procedural constraints, Estonia provides generally timely and constructive assistance across the range of requests for international co-operation, including mutual legal assistance. Estonia is subject to MONEYVAL’s enhanced follow-up reporting process as a result of the report.
