SIPA

Upon a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in May and June this year by the Committee of experts on the evaluation of anti-money laundering measures and the financing of terrorism (MONEYVAL) that had an insight into laws and secondary legislation in more than 60 domestic institutions and dozens of conducted interviews, there were only a few who believed that those same experts would change their opinion after drafting a report of over 265 pages containing 1145 observations.

That is exactly what happened on the third MONEYVAL Plenary Session held by the Council of Europe on December 10th 2009 in Strasbourg.
The experts from 30 European countries, after detailed screenings and series of discussions with B&H Delegation headed by Mijo Golub, acting head of the SIPA's Financial Intelligence Department, came to a conclusion that B&H fulfilled the majority of recommendations for combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

B&H's successful completion of the third Moneyval evaluation round, according to BH media is a clear indication that our country is not a fertile ground for money laundering and terrorism financing.
According to an article published in Dnevni Avaz published on December 18th 2009, B&H received „a confirmation that legislation and work of institutions, financial, judicial and law enforcement agencies in these areas have satisfied the European standards“. According to this article, the consequences for the country would have been extremely negative in case that B&H had not received a positive opinion,
“In that case, all financial transactions would have been under the specific monitoring regime that would particularly have affected the functioning of the banking system and services. At the same time, there would have been a distrust in BH institutions responsible for monitoring money flows in relation to financing of terrorist activities“, as quoted in the article titled „B&H is not a ground for money laundering and terrorism financing“.

Mijo Golub, Head of B&H Delegation, consisted of representatives of the B&H Central Bank, Banking Agency, Ministry of Interior of RS, Insurance Agency and Ministry of Justice of B&H, pointed out that this success and positive report from Strasbourg has been even more significant since it has been forwarded to all key international institutions – the European Commission, IMF and the World Bank.

„If B&H had not received a positive report, it would have been placed in a group of countries under a special regime that would lead to estimation that B&H is not a safe country for investments. More precisely, the European Union would have recommended to its member countries not to invest in B&H“, said Mijo Golub.