The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, Moneyval, has published a report calling on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to improve its measures for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The assessment highlights moderate effectiveness in nine out of eleven areas, including risk understanding, international cooperation, the use of intelligence, and investigations into money laundering and terrorist financing. However, significant improvements are needed in these areas.
The report emphasizes the need for fundamental improvements in the implementation of United Nations (UN) financial sanctions and in identifying and mitigating the risks of terrorist financing within the non-profit sector.
Although money laundering investigations have led to convictions, they are only partially aligned with the country’s risk profile, and efforts related to asset confiscation require significant improvement. Criminal prosecutions and convictions for terrorist financing do not correspond to the risk profile, and there are gaps in risk understanding.
Banks demonstrate a good understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks and apply appropriate customer due diligence. However, sectors such as notaries and other designated non-financial businesses and professions lag behind in implementing enhanced controls on politically exposed persons. Banking supervisors have a comprehensive understanding of money laundering risks, but in most other sectors, the concept of risk identification and assessment is still in its early stages. Measures to prevent the misuse of legal entities are hampered by insufficient coordination at the state level.
International cooperation is generally good, but law enforcement agencies are not proactive in seeking police cooperation regarding terrorist financing risks.
Based on the results of its evaluation, Moneyval has decided to apply its enhanced monitoring procedure and has requested BiH to submit a report in December 2026. Ref. DC (2025).
