On 18-20 June 2024, the Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) supported the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Directorate under the State Agency for National Security (FID-SANS) in organising a set of awareness-raising seminars for various sectors of obliged entities (OEs) in Bulgaria. Most notably, the outreach activities targeted more than 400 representatives of virtual assets service providers (VASPs) and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs), including auditors, accountants, tax advisors, legal professionals, gambling sector, traders in cash, company service providers and real estate agents.

Firstly, seminars provided an opportunity for the FID-SANS representatives to present latest developments in the Bulgarian Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Framework to the private sector, as well as to explain the direct impact of these changes on the AML/CFT obligations of the obliged entities. As a follow-up, participants benefitted from several presentations provided by the Council of Europe experts, which aimed at further enhancing the obliged entities’ understanding of current and emerging sector-specific money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks, trends and typologies, as well as explaining the required steps for ensuring AML/CFT compliance with the legislative requirements and international good practices. To further support various sector representatives in the identification of suspicious activities and behaviours, the Council of Europe experts presented a number of sector-specific red flag indicators and case examples of effective practices in filing suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

Last but not least, an important part of the outreach activities focused on supporting the OEs in effectively implementing their obligations with targeted financial sanctions requirements. Participants used the opportunity to benefit from Council of Europe expert’s presentations with an overview of the nature and purpose of targeted financial sanctions (TFS) and received targeted advice as regards the practical steps for ensuring effective compliance with these requirements.

To complement the abovementioned activities, the ECCD is currently cooperating with Bulgarian authorities in developing targeted guidance documents for the OEs in Bulgaria on filing suspicious transaction reports to FID-SANS, as well as on implementing targeted financial sanctions obligations.

The activities were organised within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project on “Enhancing the capabilities for risk-based AML supervision and financial intelligence in Bulgaria”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe.