MONEYVAL places Armenia under enhanced monitoring

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia has been placed under MONEYVAL's enhanced follow-up monitoring after the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering body concluded that the country's measures against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing require stronger implementation. Armenia will now be required to submit regular progress reports.

MONEYVAL has published its sixth-round mutual evaluation report, the first comprehensive assessment in a decade. The 263-page report reviews the strengths and weaknesses of Armenia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system, assesses its effectiveness and technical compliance, and outlines recommended reforms. It also incorporates findings from the evaluation team's on-site visit to Armenia in autumn 2025.

The report notes that Armenia has made commendable progress in assessing money laundering and terrorist financing risks, while national policies and strategies in these areas were considered broadly adequate. However, the country has not yet fully met all 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Although Armenia received strong marks for its legislative and regulatory framework, practical implementation was generally rated as moderately or low effective.

MONEYVAL also said Armenia underestimates external threats. According to the report, authorities primarily identify fraud, embezzlement, corruption, tax crimes, drug trafficking and cybercrime as the main sources of money laundering. At the same time, around 59% of funds involved in suspicious transaction reports are linked to cross-border factors, suggesting that external risks play a greater role than official assessments indicate. The report recommends deeper analysis of external threats, terrorist financing risks and vulnerabilities associated with virtual assets.

International cooperation was assessed as generally effective, particularly in corruption cases, although the same level of effectiveness was not consistently observed in investigations involving other crimes, including drug trafficking. The report also notes that mutual legal assistance has been used to some extent in asset recovery proceedings.

According to MONEYVAL, Armenia has no active terrorist groups, no cases of extremist propaganda or violations of minority rights were identified, and no terrorism financing cases have been recorded. The country's overall terrorist financing risk was assessed as low.

The report also states that Armenia is not a major producer of controlled or military-use goods and technologies. No export licences for dual-use goods were issued to Iran or North Korea, and no criminal cases involving the financing of weapons of mass destruction proliferation have been initiated. Following the reimposition of sanctions on Iran in September 2025, authorities identified individuals in Armenia whose details matched entries on relevant UN sanctions lists.

MONEYVAL positively assessed Armenia's financial supervision system and measures aimed at preventing criminal groups from entering the financial sector. However, it noted that the private sector still reports suspicious transactions too infrequently and that the quality of such reports needs improvement.

The report also recommends strengthening oversight of virtual asset service providers and private investment funds, where supervision was found to be of limited effectiveness because sanctions and corrective measures have not provided a sufficient deterrent.

According to MONEYVAL, Armenia has adopted a multi-layered approach to collecting information on beneficial ownership, but should further improve the beneficial ownership register to ensure that the information it contains is complete, accurate and up to date.

Despite progress in anti-corruption efforts and judicial reforms, the report says the number of money laundering convictions remains low. During the assessment period, only seven convictions were recorded, all involving relatively small-scale self-laundering cases linked to fraud.

Based on its assessment of effectiveness and technical compliance, MONEYVAL has presented Armenian authorities with a roadmap of Priority Recommended Actions, which is expected to be implemented over the next three years.