As part of its efforts aimed at supporting the Croatian National Bank (CNB) and the Croatian Financial Services Supervision Agency (Hanfa) with further enhancing their risk-based approach to Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) supervision, the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) assists the two institutions with improving their risk-assessment methodologies and developing solutions for automated data collection and risk-profiling of obliged entities.

In order to exchange experience and collect additional information about practices of other EU Member States’ supervisory authorities, the beneficiary institutions have requested Council of Europe’s support in learning more about the experiences of supervisory authorities in other EU Member States. To address this request, on 11-12 September 2023, the ECCD organised a peer-to-peer expert exchange between the CNB, Hanfa and the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI).

The peer-to-peer exchange was kicked-off by a presentation of the three institutions’ supervisory scope and supervised sectors, as well as by a quick exchange as regards the main challenges currently encountered by the supervisors, and areas of common interest. In the follow-up session, the CBI representatives provided an in-depth presentation of their risk-assessment methodology at both individual obliged entity and sector levels, including the data collection process and its specific use. This was complemented by an overview and practical demonstration of the existing automated risk-assessment tool within the CBI. 

The second day of the peer-to-peer exchange was dedicated to supervisory practices. The CBI representatives shared for instance their experience as regards the development of a supervisory strategy based on risk-assessment results, and the use of supervisory tools. The discussions also touched upon the issues of post inspection engagement, escalation pyramid and the application of sanctions for AML/CFT infringements. Finally, Croatian authorities also learned about the existing practices within the CBI as regards the exchange of information and cooperation between prudential and AML/CFT supervisors, as well the outreach towards its obliged entities.

The present activity not only provided a platform for experience-sharing between supervisory authorities in two EU MS, but it also allowed to enhance their cooperation and facilitate such exchanges in the future.

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”, 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.