Council of Europe anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL has published an assessment of Slovenia finding that the country has improved its understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, especially among key authorities, and has strong operational coordination, international cooperation and financial-sector supervision. But the report says those strengths are offset by structural data gaps, uneven engagement across authorities and the absence of a formal national strategy with prioritized and adequately resourced actions. It also points to significant weaknesses in the regulatory framework, preventive measures, and supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions such as real estate agents and lawyers. The review says Slovenia is substantially effective at preventing criminals from owning or controlling financial institutions, and that financial institutions generally understand their risks while supervisors provide guidance on mitigation. By contrast, beneficial ownership controls remain weaker, with incomplete measures to ensure data accuracy and timeliness and sanctions that are not proportionate, effective and dissuasive. MONEYVAL also highlights the Financial Intelligence Unit's operational independence and broad database access, but says recent legislative changes limiting law enforcement access to banking data and resource constraints are affecting the timely delivery of financial intelligence. Money laundering cases are investigated and prosecuted, including complex cross-border matters, yet outcomes are only partly aligned with Slovenia's risk profile because higher evidentiary thresholds for some investigative measures and case-law interpretation of the offence reduce effectiveness. Asset tracing and seizure are functioning, but confiscation outcomes need strengthening and non-conviction-based confiscation is used only to a limited extent. On terrorist financing, the framework and inter-agency cooperation are described as sound, but proactive case identification is not yet routine and there are deficiencies in communicating United Nations sanctions designations to the private sector, particularly in the non-financial sector. Slovenia has received a roadmap of key recommended actions to be completed within three years. Based on the country's effectiveness and technical compliance ratings, it will report back to MONEYVAL under the enhanced follow-up process.

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