On 25.01.2022, the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering (GDPML) organized a working meeting in cooperation with the Association of Banks of Albania. This meeting was attended by the General Director of GDPML, representatives of the Association of Banks and second level banks, responsible for issues of compliance with the legislation for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing. In this meeting, the General Director of GDPML, made a presentation of the amendments to the amended law no. 9917/2008 “On the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing” and the progress of the evaluation process of Albania by FATF/ICRG.

The meeting also addressed a number of issues related to:

• The concrete implementation of the amendments to the law no. 9917 and the next steps of the cooperation of GDPML with the banking sector;
• Reporting of the suspicious transactions and activity to the GDPML, for money laundering or terrorism financing;
• The progress of updating data on beneficial owners for clients and the efficient use of the register created for this purpose;
• Implementation of sanctions for persons declared as financiers of terrorism, according to the resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations;
• Organization of trainings for bank personnel, in the field of the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing;
• Technological developments in the framework of the GDPML reporting process;

GDPML pays a special attention to cooperation with all the subjects of law and especially the banking sector, and in this context the work will continue to organize such periodic meetings, which serve to further strengthen the preventive system of money laundering and terrorism financing in Albania