Gibraltar has improved measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, demonstrating significant progress in its level of compliance with Financial Action Task Force standards, according to a report published today by the Council of Europe’s committee of experts on money laundering and terrorist financing Moneyval.
Due to procedural limitations, the follow-up report only studies formal changes in the legislative, regulatory and institutional framework. It does not assess the degree to which these reforms have been effectively implemented in practice.
Following an initial assessment in 2019, Gibraltar was asked to report back to MONEYVAL under its enhanced follow-up procedure. The subsequent review looked into Gibraltar’s risk-based approach, preventative measures, transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements, regulation and supervision of financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions. MONEYVAL examined a range of legislative, regulatory, and institutional measures implemented by Gibraltar in these areas.
Moneyval says the positive steps taken by the authorities since 2019 have prompted it to assign Gibraltar a higher compliance rating, from “partially compliant” to “compliant” with regard to eight FATF Recommendations and from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant” with regard to another.
Gibraltar was among the first MONEYVAL territories to implement the regulatory and institutional framework, and to conduct assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, in the area of virtual assets and currencies. Gibraltar’s rating on the implementation of this revised Recommendation is “largely compliant”.
As a result, Gibraltar has met the general expectation for countries to have addressed most, if not all, of the technical compliance deficiencies identified by MONEYVAL within two years of the adoption of its mutual evaluation report. Gibraltar has achieved full compliance with 23 of the 40 FATF Recommendations constituting the international AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism) standard. The jurisdiction retains minor deficiencies in the implementation of sixteen Recommendations, where it has been found “largely compliant”, and one further Recommendation (international Instruments) remains “partially complaint”. Gibraltar has no “non-compliant” ratings.
Gibraltar will report back to MONEYVAL on further progress to strengthen its implementation of measures in two years time.
Article credit: GBC Online (https://www.gbc.gi/news/gibraltar-improves-measures-combat-money-laundering-according-moneyval)