On the 11th of February 2019, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism – Monevyal- made public the 1st Enhanced Follow-up Report and Compliance Re-Rating on Andorra adopted by the MONEYVAL Committee at its 57th Plenary Sessions which took place in Strasbourg between the 3-7 of December 2018.
Out of the 28 jurisdictions that Moneyval evaluates, Andorra was the 6th jurisdiction to undergo the 5th evaluation round.
Moneyval is a permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the effectiveness of their implementation, as well as with the task of making recommendations to national authorities in respect of necessary improvement to their systems.
The 5th mutual evaluation report (MER) of Andorra was adopted in September 2017. The new report analyses the progress of Andorra in addressing certain technical compliance deficiencies that were identified in its MER, as well as the implementation of new requirements relating to FATF Recommendations which have changed since the MER was adopted.
The report states that Andorra has made progress to address the technical deficiencies identified in the MER and has been re-rated on 12 Recommendations all of which have been upgraded.
As for the progress made on those Recommendations which have been amended since the adoption of Andorra’s 5th round MER, two remain with the same rating after being assessed against the revised standards (C and LC) and one was re-rated C.
In public statements made by the Finance Minister, Jordi Cinca, said “the report tells us we have done our homework and encourages us to continue with our efforts to improve”, he then took stock of Andorra’s evolution in this matter “In 2011 Andorra was rated non-compliant in 10 out of the 40 Recommendations, today Andorra complies with all the Moneyval Recommendations”.
In words of the Andorran Banking Association’s General Manager, Esther Puigcercós, “the hard work undertaken in the last year and the outcome reflected in the latest evaluation reaffirm Andorra’s unequivocal commitment to fight money laundering and terrorist financing and to implement the evolving international standards”.
Overall, the report highlights the commendable progress made by Andorra in addressing certain deficiencies. Moneyval found no shortcomings in the implementation of 10 Recommendations such as in national co-operation and co-ordination, reporting of suspicious transactions, tipping-off and confidentiality and cash couriers. 24 Recommendations are rated Largely Compliant and 6 as Partially Compliant.