Council of Europe anti-money laundering body reports Georgia’s progress in combating money laundering, terrorism financing

Georgia’s progress in combating money laundering and financing of terrorism has been recognised in a new report released on Tuesday by MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body.

The report found the country to have improved its compliance with a recommendation on politically exposed persons by the Financial Action Task Force, an independent inter-governmental body developing policies for safeguarding the global financial system against money laundering, terrorism financing and financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Overall, Georgia has made progress in addressing technical compliance shortcomings identified in its 2020 Mutual Evaluation Report, MONEYVAL added.

Notably, the amendments introduced by Georgia in 2023 to its anti-money laundering legislation have fully addressed the deficiencies previously identified regarding measures applicable to politically exposed persons. As a result, the country has been re-rated on recommendation 12 from ‘partially compliant’ to ‘compliant’”, the body said.

Out of 40 recommendations issued, Georgia has been rated to be “compliant” on seven, “largely compliant” on 22, “partially compliant” on 10 and “non-compliant” on one.

The country’s authorities are expected to report back to MONEYVAL in December on further progress made towards strengthening its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system, the body said.