In a report published today, the Council of Europe anti money laundering body MONEYVAL calls on the Lithuanian authorities to strengthen their understanding of money laundering (ML) and financing of terrorism (FT) risks and to conduct the next iteration of the national risk assessment.
The report makes a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of Lithuania's anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system and its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations. Based on the results of its evaluation, MONEYVAL decided to apply its enhanced follow-up procedure to Lithuania.
Lithuania faces various ML threats mainly deriving from corruption, the shadow economy, organised crime and the widespread use of cash. The authorities are aware of these threats and have taken steps to address a number of them, with concrete results, in particular, in reducing the shadow economy. However, further efforts are needed to mitigate some significant vulnerabilities, in particular in relation to investigation and prosecution of ML and AML/CFT supervision. With regard to FT, there is no information suggesting that Lithuania faces an elevated risk. MONEYVAL notes that the authorities have an uneven but broadly adequate understanding of FT risks, consistent with Lithuania’s risk profile.
