Bosnia and Herzegovina heading for the blacklist: Moneyval issues warning to states!

The Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Measures - Moneyval issued a warning to its member states today to pay special attention to financial transactions with Bosnia and Herzegovina, because our country's legislation is not aligned with international standards, reports the BH news agency Patria (NAP).

This is a statement that was expected after BiH failed to adopt the new Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Prevention of Financing of Terrorism by June 1, which was the deadline set by this organization. The publication of this statement is a step towards placing BiH on the "blacklist" along with Iran and North Korea, i.e., among countries that do not respect financial control standards.

- Moneyval calls on states and territories that comply with the standards and all other states to warn their financial institutions to pay attention and apply enhanced security measures when conducting transactions with persons and financial institutions from or in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to prevent the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing - the Moneyval statement said today.

Two months ago, this institution warned BiH about such a possible development of the situation and decided to publish this statement with a two-month deferral of validity, until today. This was the last chance for BiH to fulfill its obligation, but it was not done. The law was adopted in the House of Representatives of BiH, but not in the House of Peoples, which is scheduled for June 6 this year, reports NAP.