The Bank of Greece is the authority responsible for supervising compliance with the legal and regulatory framework on the prevention and suppression of money laundering, terrorist financing (AML/CFT) and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, by the institutions under its supervision.
The current institutional framework has been primarily established by incorporating the relevant EU legislation, which is aligned with the "Forty (40) Recommendations against money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction" as adopted in February 2012 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is an international body setting standards and issuing guidelines.
The Bank of Greece, in the context of its supervisory tasks, checks supervised institutions’ compliance with their AML/CFT obligations and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of their AML/CFT procedures.
In addition, the Bank of Greece has issued an extensive typology of suspicious transactions based on Greek circumstances and international bibliography.
It should be noted that, other than being responsible for checking compliance with the stipulated due diligence provisions when transactions are carried out by supervised institutions, including the obligation to report suspicious transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, the Bank of Greece is not vested with preliminary investigation powers nor is responsible for investigating suspicious transaction reports. The Anti-Money Laundering Authority is exclusively responsible for investigating thoroughly suspicious transactions and take further actions.
The legal and regulatory framework is established on the basis of the Law, EU directives and regulations, the Governor's Acts, Executive Committee Acts, Credit and Insurance Committee/Banking and Credit Committee Decisions, circulars and explanatory documents.
Legislation
Law 4557/30.07.2018 as amended by Law 4734/08.10.2020 is the basis of the applicable Greek institutional framework on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and incorporates the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/849 and 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council.