Austria’s progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing

Paris, 22 November 2018 – As a result of Austria’s progress in strengthening their measures to fight money laundering and terrorist financing since their 2016 mutual evaluation report and their first follow-up progress report in December 2017, the FATF has re-rated the country on two additional Recommendations.

Austria has been in an enhanced follow-up process, following the adoption of the FATF mutual evaluation, which assessed the effectiveness of the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) measures and the country’s compliance with the FATF Recommendations. In line with the FATF Procedures for mutual evaluations, Austria has reported back to the FATF on the action it has taken to strengthen its AML/CFT framework.

This second follow-up report analyses Austria’s progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in the mutual evaluation report since their first progress report to the FATF in December 2017. To reflect this progress, the FATF has re-rated Austria on the following Recommendations:

24 – Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons - from partially compliant to largely compliant

25 – Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements – from partially compliant to largely compliant

The report also looks at whether Austria’s measures meet the requirements of FATF Recommendations that have changed since their December 2017 progress report. The FATF agreed to maintain the ratings of partially compliant for Recommendation 7 (Targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation) and compliant for Recommendation 18 (Internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries) and Recommendation 21 (Tipping-off and confidentiality)

Mutual evaluation of Austria – September 2016

Follow-up report to the mutual evaluation of Austria – December 2017