Important success of Greece in Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism
21/06/2019 - Press Releases
The evaluation of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) System of Greece, based on the revised Recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), i.e. the intergovernmental body setting the relevant global standards, was completed with great success in Orlando. On 20/6, the FATF, under the US Presidency, adopted the evaluation report of Greece, according which our country becomes subject to a “regular follow-up” process, a regime that applies to a limited number of assessed countries worldwide. Based on the report, which will be released in six weeks, Greece is ranked among the countries with a high level of compliance with international AML/CFT standards.
As regards the financial sector, the report states that the Bank of Greece identifies and assesses the Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing (ML/TF) risks of supervised sectors and individual companies and applies a risk-based approach to its supervision. Credit and financial institutions also have a good understanding of their ML/TF risks and obligations and apply mitigating measures commensurate with their risks.
The successful evaluation of Greece and its financial sector, based on the revised strict FATF standards, significantly enhances the reputation and credibility of the Greek banking system. Given that financial institutions worldwide are required to assess the country risk of their counterparties, based primarily on FATF’s evaluations, the successful evaluation of Greece is expected to have a positive impact on the correspondent banking activities of Greek banks, as well as on the cross- border transactions and activities of all Greek financial institutions.
The Bank of Greece, having played a significant role in this national effort that started 2.5 years ago with the Assessment of the National ML/TF Risk, congratulates the Ministry of Finance, which coordinated all of the national competent authorities involved, on the successful completion of this important project.