The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) published its latest annual report in May 2022, focusing on the overall performance of countries under enhanced monitoring.
This group includes, among others, Albania. MONEYVAL experts emphasized the presence of only minor improvements compared to the previous reporting period. According to the authors of the document, the authorities of the Balkan country have not achieved significant improvements in measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with the FATF recommendations.
Albania was included in MONEYVAL’s «grey list» of countries with a high risk of money laundering back in 2011, which are subject to enhanced follow-up or monitoring. Then, in 2015, the Balkan country achieved exclusion from the «grey list», but 5 years later it was again included there due to «strategic deficiencies» that were discovered by the experts.
One of the sectors of the Albanian economy that is most exposed to the risk of money laundering, experts say, is real estate transactions. In an effort to speed up the removal of their home country from the «gray list», the Albanian authorities have announced stricter controls over local real estate agencies.
The authorities have prepared 8 orders and 1 instruction that allow for the regulation and control of the real estate services market. The process of licensing, ethical and disciplinary control will be subject to delegation to independent international organizations that carry out such activities in Albania.
One of the main innovations is the creation of a Disciplinary Commission to evaluate the actions of agents. The Commission will conduct investigations into the actions or inactions of a realtor who is reasonably suspected of violating the law or providing professional services of inadequate quality that are contrary to current legislation or the Code of Professional Ethics.
In addition, agencies will be subject to regular audits for money laundering risks by the Ministry of Justice. The audit will be carried out in two stages, during which various aspects of the activities of real estate intermediaries will be checked, including their professional activities (brokerage activities, receipt of fees, etc.), office work (HR management, tax and professional obligations, etc.), compliance with internal regulations for controlling the risk of money laundering, data collection and analysis systems.
Prepared based on materials from acp.al (https://acp.al/…/Rreziku-i-pastrimit-te-parave…/ and https://acp.al/…/Moneyval:-Shqiperia-asnje-permiresim…/)