Economist Dejan Soskic said that the fact that Serbia ranks 46th in the Basel AML Index is not a good sign, because it means that it is one of the countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Countries with a significantly disturbed institutional environment, such as Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, are in a better ranked than us. Bearing in mind that, as the only European country, we were already blacklisted by the FATF, an international organisation dealing with money laundering and money laundering, in 2018 and 2019, it is difficult to get rid of the impression that Serbia is still considered a very risky country on this issue,” Soskic said.
The AML Index measures the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing worldwide.
As stated in the latest report, the problem is not in Serbia’s laws and regulations, which, according to recent estimates by the Financial Action Task Force, are fairly well developed, but in their implementation. “In other words, laws on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing exist in theory in Serbia, but they are not effective in practice,” the report says.
The recommendation is for Serbia to strengthen its resilience in the mentioned areas by applying existing laws and regulations more efficiently, then implementing measures to fight corruption and increasing the independence of the judiciary and other public institutions, the report adds.
(Naslovi.net, 19.12.2021)
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