Mutual Evaluation of Greece

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has completed an assessment of the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards in Greece.

Among its major findings were:

• In general, it appears that the money laundering offence is not effectively implemented. The criminalisation of terrorist financing is very recent (July 2004) and there have been no TF cases as yet.

• The provisions in relation to confiscation of criminal proceeds do not fully comply with the international standards.

• The Greek FIU has been assigned extensive powers and responsibilities; however, there are serious doubts about the current structure and capacity of the unit to properly perform its tasks and functions, in particular the traditional core functions of an FIU. The powers and capacity of the law enforcement services are generally sound.

• The preventive system that deals with customer identification is generally insufficient and not in line with the international standards.

• The total number of suspicious transactions reports appears low, with virtually none from outside the banking sector.

• There are deficiencies in AML/CFT supervision in the banking area and, to a more severe extent, in the securities sector. Measures are non-existent in the insurance sector.

• Greece needs to put comprehensive AML/CFT obligations into place for DNFBPs in order to comply with the FATF standards.

• Greece has a sufficient framework for providing international co-operation and is able to do so broadly, although certain limitations in the coverage of the money laundering and terrorist financing offences could provide a technical limitation to such assistance.

For further information, journalists are invited to contact the FATF Secretariat, 2, rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16 (tel: +33 1 45 24 79 45, fax: +33 1 44 30 61 37, email: contact@fatf-gafi.org).