Risk-Based AML/CFT Supervision: Effective Assessment and Mitigation of Emerging Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing Risks”, in Lisbon, Portugal.
The event was organised as part of the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division’s efforts to support Bank of Portugal with improving its risk-based approach to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervision. While assisting the beneficiary institution with a review of its risk-assessment methodology and other targeted support to strengthen its risk-based supervision process, with this Workshop, the ECCD also aimed to provide an opportunity for supervisory practitioners from different EU Member States to discuss challenges they are facing, as well as to exchange their experience and examples of good practices.
The risk-based supervision is a topic of interest for all financial supervisors and there is ongoing discussion in the AML/CFT practitioners’ community on the need to adapt supervisory practices and approaches to the growing complexity of the financial ecosystem. Over the past few years, with the increased dynamics and nature of digital activity means, supervisory authorities had to become more proactive and demonstrate further engagement while placing a specific focus on emerging areas of money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
In this respect, the regional Workshop allowed over 55 representatives of financial supervisory authorities from 14 EU Member States, as well as Council of Europe experts, to discuss and take stock of the latest trends and tools when it comes to conducting effective risk assessments and ensuring an effective risk-based AML/CFT supervision of financial institutions.
Furthermore, participants could benefit from the knowledge of qualified experts who touched upon different practices in conducting sectoral risk assessment methodologies. They could also discuss about the information exchange and the application of supervisory tools and data mapping as a foundation of automated processes in the supervision context. Moreover, the presentations focused on the application of risk factors in the risk-based supervision and provided examples of the effective use of IT tools in conducting sectoral risk assessments.
The event was organised within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) initiative on “Developing a risk-based methodology for an automatic anti-money laundering/counter terrorist financing risk categorisation for supervised entities in Portugal”, and other related TSI and Structural Support Reform Programme (SRSP) projects, funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe.