This is how dirty money is being cleaned in Albania, banks are at great risk, Real Estate is the biggest "laundering machine", the annual report of the Financial Intelligence Agency that cooperates with SPAK and SHISH reveals

The Financial Intelligence Agency in Albania, which deals with the prevention of money laundering and criminal products, as well as the prevention of terrorist financing, under the Ministry of Finance, has raised the alarm in its annual report. It is acknowledged there that banking entities present a high level of risk for money laundering, together with non-financial businesses and professions. According to AFIU, an agency that cooperates with SPAK and SHISH, the banking products with the greatest risk of laundering dirty money are the transfer of funds, both inside and outside the country, as well as cash deposits or withdrawals. Lending is the product that has a high circulating value, but the data shows that credit is not a very used product for laundering proceeds of crime. The e-banking services, the report says, show a growing trend, but still remain non-dominant compared to other products. Even non-bank financial institutions have a significant risk of money laundering, according to AFIU, together with foreign exchange offices, given that it is directly related to cash. But of greater concern are entities that make remittances as they send and receive money from any country, many payments can be made in small amounts, combination with foreign exchange, the involvement of agents themselves in schemes, etc. The report states that the areas with the highest risk for laundering dirty money are those of real estate, construction, call centers and economic and legal consulting services.

Details from the report

"The use of the banking system is generally unavoidable in one or more stages of money laundering (deployment, stratification, integration), due to the inherent nature of the banking operation, its dominant development in our country compared to other entities financial, its size and importance, as well as due to the large number of clients or transactions carried out on their behalf. While the banking sector in principle has a high exposure to money laundering risks, it is estimated that it has good awareness and adequate tools to detect them. This has been confirmed not only by international evaluations of the field, but also by a high level of RAD reporting over the years, not only numerically but also in terms of their quality. Thus, in more than 90% of cases, RAD sent by the banking sector served as evidence for the information sent by AIF to the law enforcement bodies. The notary profession has been perceived and has also resulted from the data as being among the most vulnerable compared to other subjects/professions because the notary in Albania has a central role, as well as performs a wide range of legal actions (lending, credit contracts , inheritance hatch, etc.), for most of which it is the only possibility for actions, including real estate transactions.

Most used products

The analysis of the available data within this assessment showed that the most used products for cleaning the proceeds of the criminal offense based on the analysis are: incoming/outgoing transfers to and from abroad, withdrawal/deposit of funds, transfer of funds within the country . Regarding the use of bank transfers, among the characteristics that make them attractive for money laundering cases are: the difficulty to monitor or control electronic transfers, at the same level as other banking products due to the volume of transactions; funds may be transferred through different jurisdictions, so as to lose track of the source of the funds, or transfers may be made from a large number of bank accounts to deposits that are designed to lose track of the main account often located abroad. Regarding the use of cash money, among the characteristics that make it attractive for money laundering cases are: hiding the origin of income and the difficulty in tracking this income", the report states.

Virtual Tools and Electronic Money

"In 2020, the Assembly of Albania adopted Law 66/2020 "On financial markets based on distributed ledger technology. The object of the law is the regulation of the issuance of digital tokens and/or virtual currencies, the licensing, monitoring and supervision of entities that exercise the activity of distribution, trading and storage of digital tokens and/or virtual currencies, the agent of digital tokens, the provider of innovative services and automated collective investment enterprise. Following the approval of Law 66/2020, the supervisory authorities, namely the Financial Supervision Authority and the National Authority for the Information Society (AKSHI) have drawn up and approved the by-laws in implementation of Law 66/2020, the regulations for the capital adequacy of these entities , for the voluntary and compulsory liquidation procedures, the relevant licensing and supervision fees as well as the maintenance of the registers of the licensed entities.

Data for the period 2019-2022

Currently, in our country, there are no entities licensed as providers of virtual tools, but in this context, it is worth stating that: As a means of payment, it is difficult to implement in our country. For example, if the purchase of real estate is intended and cryptocurrency is available, this must be exchanged in advance in FIAT as payments must be made in this type of tool. Even the Casinos inside do not offer the possibility of using cryptocurrencies. Services from a variety of professionals are accepted with electronic payments through cards and bank accounts, i.e. in recognized currencies. There are infrequent cases of Albanian bank clients investing their funds in virtual assets, through platforms abroad that offer this opportunity, but the banks report that for virtual assets in the last year we have a decrease in requests for crypto transactions, this is due to the restrictive policies of the banks", the report states.