site.btaBulgaria Strengthens Measures against Money Laundering, MONEYVAL Says

Bulgaria has further improved its measures for tackling money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, concludes the Council of Europe’s expert committee MONEYVAL in a follow-up report released on Tuesday.

The report found that Bulgaria has improved its compliance with key Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, including those on customer due diligence, targeted financial sanctions, transparency of legal entities, and oversight of designated non-financial businesses and professions.

Since the adoption of its mutual evaluation report in April 2022, Bulgaria has taken steps to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework. It is now rated compliant or largely compliant with 32 FATF Recommendations, while eight remain partially compliant.

Authorities did not seek a re-rating on the remaining eight, which include areas such as confiscation, non-profit organisations, new technologies, and mutual legal assistance. As a result, these were not re-assessed in this follow-up report.

The findings are based on a three-year interim review. Bulgaria is expected to report back to MONEYVAL next year on further progress.

MONEYVAL is the Council of Europe’s permanent monitoring body for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards.