Historical overview

The following represents a historical outline of the principal developments related to the establishment and institutional consolidation of the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering.

  • In May 2000, the Albanian Parliament, based on the recommendation of MONEYVAL Committee, approved the Law no. 8610, May 17, 2000“On the prevention of money laundering”;
  • In August 2001, the Directorate for the Coordination of the Fight Against Money Laundering (DCFAML) was established within the Ministry of Finance;
  • In July 2003, DCFAML became a member of the Egmont  group;
  • In August 2005, DCFAML became the General Directorate for the Prevention of the Money Laundering within the Ministry of Finance;
  • In November 2006, the Law No. 9641, of 20.11.2006, “On the ratification of European Council Convention“ For the prevention of terrorism” and the Law No. 9646, of 27.11.2006 “On the ratification of European Council Convention “On the laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime and financing of terrorism” were approved;
  • In September 2007, started the twinning project with the Federal Criminal Office of Germany, which aimed at strengthening the capacity of the GDPML and a number of other institutions involved in preventing and combating crime offenses and terrorism financing. This project was made possible in the framework of the generous assistance of the EU Delegation in Tirana;
  • In May 2008, the Albanian Parliament approved Law no. 9917, May 19, 2008, “On the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism”, which entered into force on September of the same year.The purpose of this law was to approximate the Albanian legislation with the international recommendations of the FATF;
  • In September 2009, was concluded the twinning project with the German Federal Criminal Office;
  • In October 2009, the Council of Ministers approved Decree no.1077 of October 2009, for the approval of the National Strategic Document “On the investigation of financial crime”. GDPML had the leading role in the drafting of this document;
  • In November 2010, the 4th round of the country’s assessment process started by Moneyval Committee of the CoE, in which the GDPML played a prominent role in coordinating with all domestic institutions;
  • On April 2011, MONEYVAL Committee of the CoE adopted the 4th round report of Albania, reflecting the upgrade of the recommendation 26 of the FATF directly related to the activity of GDPML as a Financial Intelligence Unit;
  • In May 2011, started the twinning project with the Spanish authorities in order to strengthen the institutional capacities of the institutions involved in preventing and fighting criminal offense products and terrorist financing, including GDPML as a beneficiary institution. This project was made possible in the framework of the generous assistance of the EU Delegation in Tirana;
  • In October 2012, was concluded the National Assessment of the Risk of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and presented to Committee for the Coordination of the Fight Against Money Laundering;
  • In May 2013, was concluded the Twinning Project with Spanish authorities;
  • In October 2013, the Albanian Parliament approved the Law “On the measures against financing of terrorism”;which provided a better approximation to the FATF’s international recommendations in view of the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions;
  • In May 2015, Albania concluded the implementation process of the FATF recommendations, and it was removed from the public list of countries with deficiencies in the area of money laundering and terrorism financing. GDPML has played an active role in fulfilling the recommendations made in this process and coordinating the work with the institutions involved (Bank of Albania, Financial Supervisory Authority, General Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Justice);
  • In June 2015 the review of the national risk money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment was completed, incorporating the contributions from state institutions and the private sector;
  • In September 2015, the Moneyval committee took into consideration Albania’s progress vis a vis the recommendations of the fourth round of evaluations based on the measures undertaken by the authorities, deciding whereupon to terminate the compliance enhancing procedure;
  • In November 2016, the Council of Ministers, based on the internal procedures, approved the national list of individuals designated as terrorists;
  • In April 2017, the Albanian Parliament in the framework of judicial reform adopted Law no. 44/2017 “On some amendments and additions to law no. 9917/2008, On the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism”;
  • In April 2017 pursuant to Prime Minister’s order no.46 “On approval of the structure and organization of the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering” GDPML’s staff was increased with 11 employees;
  • In October 2017, in the framework of the 5th round of evaluation for Albania, an on-site visit was conducted by a team of Moneyval experts;
  • In July 2018, the Moneyval Committee approved Albania’s Vth round mutual evaluation report;
  • In September 2018, the Committee for the Coordination of the Fight Against Money Laundering, under the direction of the Prime Minister, approved the action plan for addressing the recommendations of the Moneyval report, setting out for each action deadlines and stakeholder institutions.
  • In October 2018, started the drafting changes to the legislation on money laundering prevention and terrorist financing;