site.btaJustice Minister Presents Measures to Remove Bulgaria from Financial Action Task Force's "Grey List"

Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev presented a package of measures aimed at removing Bulgaria from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) so-called “grey list” of countries that have not fully implemented measures to fight money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing, the Ministry of Justice's press office reported on Thursday. Georgiev was speaking during a bilateral meeting with experts from the FATF and the Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL Committee in Zagreb. 

In 2022, Bulgaria was placed on the “grey list” of countries under enhanced monitoring due to insufficient measures and unsatisfactory evaluations of key recommendations from the MONEYVAL Committee. The "grey list" names "jurisdictions under increased monitoring." Such jurisdictions are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring, the FATF says on its website.

Georgiev highlighted the finalized legislative changes in the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Administrative Violations and Penalties Act, which are designed to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. These legislative amendments, published for public discussion last week, are in response to the recommendations made to Bulgaria in 2022.

The proposed amendments include changes to the crime of bribing a public official and a foreign official, as well as the parallel development of criminal proceedings against both individuals and legal entities in a single case. The changes also introduce more effective, proportionate, and deterrent financial and non-financial sanctions against legal entities in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

“The progress we are reporting now is encouraging because we have finalized much of the legislation, which is ready for parliamentary approval. However, there is still a lot of work to be done quickly to make up for the setbacks from 2022,” the Minister said.

According to Georgiev, the removal of Bulgaria from the FATF "grey list" remains a Government priority. The procedure is expected to have a significant impact on improving the investment climate and increasing Bulgaria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he added.

In addition to the goal of removing Bulgaria from the FATF "grey list" and implementing the MONEYVAL recommendations, the measures are also crucial for assessing Bulgaria’s readiness for membership in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the statement added.

After its latest update, the "grey list" includes 24 countries. Bulgaria was first put on it on October 27, 2023. Currently, the list also includes Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Monaco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen.

According to a FATF report, Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring, since October 2023, when Bulgaria made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MONEYVAL to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regime, the country has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by demonstrating initial implementation of its national action plan for its AML/CFT strategy; demonstrating initial implementation of risk-based supervision for postal money operators, currency exchange providers and real estate agents and ensuring that confiscation is pursued as a policy objective.