Cyprus has improved its measures for tackling money laundering and combating financing of terrorism, Moneyval said in a follow-up report released on 2 May.
The report found Cyprus to have improved its compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendations 15 (New technologies). It also noted progress towards improving its level of compliance with Recommendation 8 (non-profit organisations).
Since November 2022, Cyprus had improved the virtual asset service providers regime with only a few minor deficiencies remaining. Moneyval said.
In addition, several measures to assess terrorism financing risk exposure by the non-profit sector and strengthen oversight activities have been taken, although these have not yet been fully implemented.
Whilst Recommendation 8 remains Partly Compliant, the country has been re-rated on Recommendation 15 from Partially Compliant to Largely Compliant.
Overall, Cyprus has made progress in addressing most of the technical compliance shortcomings identified in its 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report.
Out of the 40 recommendations, Cyprus currently has:
• 16 Recommendations rated Compliant
• 21 Recommendations rated Largely Compliant Recommendations rated Partially Compliant
"Cyprus has reached the general expectation of having remedied most of the technical compliance deficiencies at the end of its third year of follow up. It is expected to report back by May 2025 to Moneyval on further progress made towards strengthening its anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism system". the statement concluded.
