The Cabinet of Ministers of Cyprus on Wednesday 30th May granted the Department of Bankruptcy Affairs the powers of the Asset Management Service.
The department will now be able to deal with controversial money laundering cases.
According to a proposal by Energy Minister Yiorgos Papanastasiou, the aim of the initiative is to combat organized crime and eliminate the proceeds of crime through the effective management of assets seized in criminal cases. The Ministry was considered the appropriate body to deal with these issues, following the approval of the Legal Service and the Anti-Money Laundering Unit (Mokas).
It should be noted that the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL) has previously stated that Cyprus has made progress in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
In particular, the experts noted that Cyprus has increased its level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 15 on new technologies and has also made progress in improving its level of compliance with Recommendation 8 on non-profit organisations.
Over the past year, Cyprus has been able to improve the regime applicable to virtual asset service providers, while still addressing some of its shortcomings. In addition, several steps have been taken to assess the risk of terrorist financing in the non-profit sector and to strengthen supervisory activities, although these have not been fully implemented. For its part, the Cypriot government has underlined its unwavering commitment to continue to comply with the necessary measures to combat illicit money laundering.
This is to ensure that our country complies with all international standards in the fight against illicit money and the financing of terrorism," officials said.