Over 80 auditors and accountants, members of professional networks, were presented and discussed the EU legislative framework in the field of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism, during a roundtable organized today by the EU High-Level Advisers’ Mission. The main aim of the roundtable was to raise stakeholders’ awareness on the EU legislative provisions in order to ensure timely compliance with these.

Participants to the roundtable included, more specifically, members of the Audit Supervision Council under Ministry of Finance, the Association of Professional Accountants and Auditors of the Republic of Moldova (ACAP), the Association of Auditors and Auditing Companies of the Republic of Moldova(AFAM) and Association of Auditors and Management Consultants from the Republic of Moldova(ECOFIN).

At the opening of the event, Mr. Adrian Corcimari, Deputy Head of Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering, mentioned the high relevance of the event, stating that ‘implementation of the EU anti-money laundering legislation is one of the strategic priorities for Financial Intelligence Unit and the main aim of this meeting is to familiarize the target audience with new duties in this field’.

Mr. Igoris Krzeckovskis, EU High-Level Adviser in the field of Anti-Money Laundering, lead the event, presenting European Union legislation provisions on prevention and combating money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT), principles and new duties of reporting entities according to EU AML/CFT legislation and cooperation of reporting entities with Financial Intelligence Unit in the AML/CFT field.

Participants addressed questions regarding the implementation of the EU legislation on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorism financing in EU countries, practical application of customer due diligence measures by reporting entities, access to the information on beneficial owners, report to FIU concerning suspicious transactions, as well as EU experience regarding sanctioning regime.

NB: According to EU-RM Association Agreement, the provisions of EU Directive 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing were transposed to the new Draft Law on prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorism financing (approved by the Government of Republic of Moldova on 21 December 2016 and submitted to Parliament for final approval.)

High-Level Advisers’ Mission is a team of 25 experts deployed in Moldova with the overall objective is to support the Government of the Republic of Moldova to implement its reform Agenda; in particular, to assist in developing the capacities required for the implementation of the Association Agreement (AA), including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), as well as to ensure the necessary follow-up for the post – visa liberalisation stage.