Brussels, 29/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a report published on Tuesday 29 July, the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering committee (MONEYVAL) called on the Romanian authorities to improve their system for tackling money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. In a press release, the Council of Europe “calls on the Romanian authorities to address important concerns in respect of key institutional players in the anti-money laundering field, notably the financial intelligence unit and supervisory authorities, and their enforcement results”.
The report notes that the money laundering offence is “broadly in line with international standards and the number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions has positively increased” but that further measures are required to strengthen the implementation of the money laundering offence and structural and capacity deficiencies in the law enforcement and judicial processes need to be addressed. The Romanian authorities still need to strengthen the independence of the financial intelligence unit by divesting the government-appointed Board “of its decision-making powers on core operational functions”. The committee points out that further efforts are required to ensure that the national coordination mechanism in place regularly reviews the Romanian anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system and its effectiveness. (SP)