13/02/2020 10:28
Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides on Wednesday welcomed Moneyval’s evaluation of Cyprus’ anti- money laundering framework, stating that Ministry is committed to implementing Moneyval’s recommendations.
“The report reflects the progress and the measures adopted by Cyprus to combat money laundering in recent years and identifies areas where further improvements are needed,” Petrides said in a written statement, following the release of Moneyval’s fifth evaluation report earlier today.
Noting that MOVNEYVAL’s assessment is a very demanding exercise with very few countries achieving high results, Petrides underlined that “within this background, the assessment shows a very satisfactory picture of the implementation of the measures, with Cyprus being one of the 25 countries out of the 98 that have been subjected to this assessment and which do not exhibit a low rating on any of the 11 pillars evaluating the effectiveness of the measures.”
The Finance Minister furthermore describes the report as a “tool for improving the measures against money laundering and contribute to the international effort to combat the phenomenon, for which Cyprus has shown its commitment to implement strong policies against money laundering and terrorist financing activities.”
“The Ministry of Finance and the Government are committed to implement all recommendations which are largely consistent with the findings of the National Risk Assessment Report on AML/CFT as well as with the Action Plan and Strategy Plan prepared by the Authorities and approved by the Council of Ministers,” Petrides adds.
Furthermore, Government Spokesman Kyriacos Koushos welcomed the report, noting that "it illustrates the significant work done by the government" in the field of anti-money laundering.