According to MONEYVAL, Poland needs 'fundamental improvements' to improve its AML ...

MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe's anti-financial crime committee, has warned Poland that it needs to bulk up its regulatory framework and strengthen its anti-money laundering measures.

In a critical report, MONEYVAL stated, "“Further improvements are needed to enhance the country’s capacity to understand money laundering threats emanating from certain types of predicate offences."

"Fundamental improvements are needed regarding the seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime from money laundering and associated predicate offences," according to the report.

MONEYVAL also stated that "a supervisory system, including a sanctioning regime, on proliferation financing must be urgently put in place," and that "further awareness-raising activities to enhance knowledge and understanding of some authorities and entities of the private sector on their respective obligations" are needed.

Local authorities "did not display a comprehensive view of the factual and potential amounts of proceeds," according to the body. "More efforts are needed to ensure a uniform and comprehensive understanding of money laundering/terrorist financing vulnerabilities and appropriate identification and reliable assessment of TF risks," MONEYVAL stated.

Despite the fact that the Polish Financial Intelligence Unit is a "key source of financial intelligence" with "full access to a wide variety of information from the private and public sectors," MONEYVAL claims that the "results of their analysis are not sufficiently exploited at the investigative stage."

MONEYVAL "encourages Poland to take procedural and institutional measures to ensure that money laundering is detected and investigated efficiently" in the country.

In terms of risk and criminalization, Polish authorities should take steps to "clarify that terrorism financing is a stand-alone crime" and "not a by-product of terrorism in terms of risk and criminalisation" MONEYVAL has also called for the strengthening of cash control mechanisms at the border by "providing a legal basis to stop and restrain suspicious assets."

According to MONEYVAL, Poland needs to "address the existing gaps in relation to preventing criminal control of obliged institutions and provide resources to allow for the comprehensive exercise of these controls and supervision."

The body acknowledged that Poland's private sector demonstrated a "substantial level of effectiveness" in implementing AML/TF preventative measures, such as "customer due diligence and internal controls," and drew "positive conclusions" about the country's ability to cooperate internationally.

MONEYVAL's enhanced follow-up reporting process will now apply to Poland.

By fLEXI tEAM