Montenegro will respond more strongly to money laundering and terrorist financing challenges
27/11/2019
The Director of the Police Administration, Mr. Veselin Veljović, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG), Mr. Radoje Žugić, signed the Agreement on Cooperation and Data Exchange on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing today.
The Agreement is a major step towards the strengthening of the Police Administration and of the CBCG concerning the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Montenegro has an efficient system for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, based on international standards and the cooperation of responsible institutions, with the newly established organisational structure of the Police Administration’s contribution to achieving more visible results in this area”, said Mr. Veljović.
“Since this area has been under the Police Administration’s competence and was transformed from administrative to financial intelligence unit police model, the key role and the purpose Department for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing has been accomplished, this being more efficient prevention of transactions suspected of money laundering”, said the Director of the Police Administration.
“This part of the CBCG competence has significantly improved in terms of organisation and system. The organisational improvement means the establishing of the Directorate for Supervision of AML/CFT Compliance with senior hierarchy level and direct connection to the Governor, with new staff and improved legislation fully aligned with the good EU practice and standards. The systemic improvement means the support of De Nederlandsche Bank on implementing the risk-based approach, which is also a good European practice”, said Governor Žugić.
It should be noted that the financial intelligence unit has access to all data on suspicious transactions passing through the Montenegrin financial system, while the responsible and consistent implementation of this Agreement will additionally improve the interinstitutional cooperation and joint acting of both institutions. Moreover, the signing of the Agreement is an important step in meeting the benchmarks set in the negotiation process for this area, which will contribute to the overall Montenegro’s integration process.
“This Agreement sends strong message to the public and to our international partners that there is no room in Montenegro for money laundering, even less for terrorist financing”, pointed out Governor Žugić.
At the today’s meeting, it was concluded that excellent cooperation between the Police Administration and the CBCG was a sign of real strengthening of our institutions, and the signalling for even better cooperation with international organisations.