Money Laundering Risk assessment - Info Session with Prosecutors, Judges and Police

Fourth Info Session, Organized in Novi Sad

 Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering organized the fourth Info Session for judges, prosecutors and police, in cooperation with Judicial Academy and OSCE Mission to Serbia.  At the session of 12 June 2019, held in Novi Sad, money laundering national risk assessment findings were presented. 

NRA findings were presented by NRA Coordinator Jelena Pantelić and the representatives of the Republic Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Justice, National Bank of Serbia, Securities Commission, Supreme Court of Cassation, APML. 

The goal of NRA is to draw conclusions on what sectors and actions within a system of a country carry potentially higher ML/TF risk, and what sectors and actions carry a lower risk.  Only based on these findings can the country adequately respond to the risks identified through a set of measures and activities and  make adequate decisions as to the allocation of risk in line with the assessment, with the intention to invest more efforts and resources into high-risk areas. 

The participants learnt about the role of FATF and MONEYVAL, as well as of 40 Recommendations (obligatory standards), and were informed during the session that the national ML/TF vulnearability was assessed to be medium-level, with no change tendency.

By having specific examples of ML threats and vulnerabilities of the system presented to them, the participants enhanced their knowledge of potential ML/TF risks.  These examples will help the police, prosecutors and judges better understand different forms that TF and ML can take.

During the session, high-threat criminal offences for money laundering were presented, namely, tax evasion, corruption and unautorized drug production and trafficking, and so was the sectoral vulnerability of financial and non-financial sectors, with special emphasis on banking sector, real estate agents and games of chance.   In addition to this, the participants were informed of the role that AML/CFT Coordination Body has, as well as of indicators for assessing threats and vulnerability, national AML/CFT legal framework and the role of supervisory authorities.  

Thse activities were organized within the Project on enhancing the quality and efficiency of suspicious transactions reporting (STR) and Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering (APML) core functions, which is financed by the EU.  The benficiary of the Project is the Ministry of Finance - Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering, and the Project is implemented by a consortium led by KPMG.