Slovakia’s AML Progress Deemed Insufficient, MONEYVAL Retains Enhanced Monitoring

Slovakia has made limited strides in enhancing its anti-money laundering (AML) framework, according to a recent report by MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s AML monitoring body. As a result, the country will remain under MONEYVAL’s ‘enhanced follow-up’ procedure, which applies to nations with notable AML deficiencies.

The report assessed Slovakia’s compliance with key recommendations issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF framework includes four rating categories: Compliant, Largely Compliant, Partially Compliant, and Non-Compliant.

MONEYVAL’s review highlighted Slovakia’s efforts to address compliance in three specific areas: the AML framework for non-profit organizations (Recommendation 8), regulations for virtual asset companies (Recommendation 15), and measures related to high-risk countries (Recommendation 19). However, the organization noted that progress in these areas fell short of expectations.

“Progress made was not sufficient to grant an upgrade, and all three recommendations remain rated Partially Compliant,” MONEYVAL stated in its report.

Slovakia’s overall compliance ratings, based on the FATF’s 40 recommendations, are as follows:

• Compliant on 5 recommendations

• Largely Compliant on 23 recommendations

• Partially Compliant on 12 recommendations

• No recommendations rated as Non-Compliant

Despite no areas being classified as non-compliant, the shortcomings in several key recommendations prompted MONEYVAL to maintain Slovakia’s status under enhanced follow-up.

“MONEYVAL decided to keep the Slovak Republic under its enhanced follow-up procedure. The country is expected to report back on its overall progress in strengthening AML/CFT measures within a year,” the organization stated.

The findings underline the ongoing need for Slovakia to address gaps in its AML framework and align its measures with international standards.

By fLEXI tEAM