Financial Action Task Force Groupe d'action …

1 Financial Action Task Force Groupe d' Action financi re THIRD MUTUAL evaluation ON ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COMBATING THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM GREECE 29 JUNE 2007 2007 FATF/OECD All rights reserved. No reproduction or translation of this publication may be made without prior written permission. Applications for such permission should be made to: FATF Secretariat, 2 rue Andr -Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France Fax: +33 1 44 30 61 37 or TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE - INFORMATION AND METHODOLOGY EXECUTIVE General Information on General Situation of Money Laundering and Financing of Overview of the Financial Sector and DNFBP.

2 19 Overview of commercial laws and mechanisms governing legal persons and Overview of strategy to prevent money laundering and terrorist 2 LEGAL SYSTEM AND RELATED INSTITUTIONAL Criminalisation of Money Laundering ( & 2)..32 Criminalisation of Terrorist Financing ( )..38 Confiscation, freezing and seizing of proceeds of crime ( )..42 Freezing of funds used for terrorist financing ( )..46 The Financial Intelligence Unit and its functions ( , 30 & 32)..53 Law enforcement, prosecution and other competent authorities ( , 28 & 30).

3 63 Cross Border Declaration or Disclosure ( )..72 3. PREVENTIVE MEASURES - Financial Risk of money laundering or terrorist Customer due diligence, including enhanced or reduced measures ( to 8)..77 Third parties and introduced business ( )..96 Financial institution secrecy or confidentiality ( )..97 Record keeping and wire transfer rules ( & )..98 Monitoring of transactions and relationships ( & 21) ..105 Suspicious transaction and other reporting ( , 19, 25 & )..109 Internal controls, compliance, audit and foreign branches ( & 22).

4 114 Shell banks ( )..119 Supervision and Money or value transfer services ( )..135 4. PREVENTIVE MEASURES DESIGNATED NON- Financial BUSINESSES AND Customer due diligence and record-keeping ( ) (applying , 6 & 8-11)..137 Monitoring transactions and other issues ( ) (applying & 21)..140 Regulation, supervision and monitoring (R. 24-25)..142 Other non- Financial businesses and professions Modern secure transaction techniques ..145 3 5. LEGAL PERSONS AND ARRANGEMENTS & NON-PROFIT Legal Persons Access to beneficial ownership and control information ( ).

5 146 Legal Arrangements Access to beneficial ownership and control information ( )..151 Non-profit organisations ( )..151 6. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL National co-operation and coordination ( & )..152 The Conventions and UN Special Resolutions ( & )..153 Mutual Legal Assistance ( & )..156 Extradition ( , & )..162 Other Forms of International Co-operation ( & )..165 7. RESOURCES AND Resources and Statistics (R. 30 & 32)..170 Other relevant AML/CFT measures or General framework for AML/CFT system (see also section ).

6 171 Table 1. Ratings of Compliance with FATF Recommendations ..173 Table 2: Recommended Action Plan to Improve the AML/CFT Table 3: Authorities Response to the evaluation (if necessary)..192 4 PREFACE - INFORMATION AND METHODOLOGY USED FOR THE evaluation OF GREECE 1. The evaluation of the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime of Greece was based on the Forty Recommendations 2003 and the Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing 2001 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and was prepared using the AML/CFT Methodology 20041.

7 The evaluation was based on the laws, regulations and other materials supplied by Greece, and information obtained by the evaluation team during its on-site visit to Greece from 20 November to 1 December 2006, and subsequently. During the on-site the evaluation team met with officials and representatives of all relevant Greek government agencies and the private sector. 2. The evaluation was conducted by an assessment team, which consisted of members of the FATF Secretariat and FATF experts in criminal law, law enforcement and regulatory issues: Mr.

8 John Carlson and Mrs. Catherine Marty from the FATF Secretariat; Mr. Giovanni Francesco D'Ecclesiis, Financial expert, Bank of Italy; Mrs. Am lie Josse, law enforcement expert, Ministry of Economy and Finance (TRACFIN), France; Mr. Ian Matthews, Financial expert, Financial Services Authority, UK; Mr. Miguel Angel Recio Crespo, legal expert, Ministry of Economy, Spain and Mr. Robert Stapleton, legal expert, Department of Justice, USA. The experts reviewed the institutional framework, the relevant AML/CFT laws, regulations, guidelines and other requirements, and the regulatory and other systems in place to deter money laundering (ML) and the financing of terrorism (FT) through Financial institutions and Designated Non- Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBP), as well as examining the capacity, the implementation and the effectiveness of all these systems2.

9 3. This report provides a summary of the AML/CFT measures in place in Greece as at the date of the on-site visit or immediately thereafter. It describes and analyses those measures, sets out Greece s levels of compliance with the FATF 40+9 Recommendations (see Table 13), and provides recommendations on how certain aspects of the system could be strengthened (see Table 2). 1 As updated in June 2006. 2 The list of all bodies met during the on-site mission, the copies of the key laws, regulations and other measures and the list of all laws, regulations and other materials received and reviewed by the assessors are available in the Annexes of this report.

10 3 Also see Table 1 for an explanation of the compliance ratings (C, LC, PC and NC). 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Background Information 1. This report provides a summary of the AML/CFT measures in place in Greece as of November 2006 (the date of the on-site visit). The report describes and analyses those measures and provides recommendations on how certain aspects of the system could be strengthened. It also sets out Greece s levels of compliance with the FATF 40 + 9 Recommendations (see attached table on the Ratings of Compliance with the FATF Recommendations).