The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the intergovernmental body within the OECD for combating money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT), has identified some areas for improvement in its Mutual Evaluation Report, published on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 August.
As regards the Netherlands, the FATF concluded that the country has a good understanding of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. One of the main strengths of the Dutch system is the strong national coordination and cooperation on AML/CFT.
However, the Netherlands’ main money laundering risks are related to fraud and drug related offences, which represent 90% of all Dutch proceeds of crime. The risk of money laundering manifests itself through the use of cryptocurrencies, trade-based services, underground banking, including unauthorised payment services and offshore companies.
In particular, the organisation recommends that the Netherlands increase its efforts to ensure that the business register contains accurate information on the companies of active legal persons.
For the report on the Netherlands: https://aeur.eu/f/2uy
Germany. As for Germany, the FATF has welcomed the implementation of significant reforms over the past five years to strengthen its system, including improved cooperation between the Federal State and the 16 Länder. Although some of these new measures are already working, the FATF suggests that this process should continue.
In the report, Germany is also urged to strengthen the supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions - such as casinos, real estate agents or certain legal professions - through a supervisory mechanism and by substantially increasing human and technical resources in this area.
The FATF addresses international AML standards and has 39 member countries that are regularly evaluated by their peers (see EUROPE 12954/29).
To see the report on Germany: https://aeur.eu/f/2uz (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)