Bulgarian Betting Working with Tax and Security Authorities on Anti-Money Laundering Improvement

BULGARIA (April 2, 2024) — Bulgarian authorities will engage in an anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) initiative alongside the country’s betting industry, dedicated news portal, PaymentExpert.com (PE) reported.

The National Revenue Agency (NRA) and State Agency for National Security attended a general meeting with gambling sector stakeholders, organised by Director General of the NRA, Rumen Spetsov.

Strategic approaches to AML and CTF were the main area of focus at the meeting. A key conclusion was establishing duties of collaboration between NRA representatives and the betting sector to solve regulatory and framework challenges.

Spetsov commented: “The NRA is focused on partnerships and is available to assist businesses when it comes to supporting their duties in relation to current legislation.

“We value the commitment of the gambling industry to effectively counteract and prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.”

The NRA is Bulgaria’s regulatory body responsible for administering taxation. The authority exercises control over the operator licensing process and taxation.

AML developments in Bulgaria are also being closely monitored by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), as the country is currently on its ‘grey list’ – a list of financial jurisdictions under increased monitoring for AML and CTF purposes.

There are currently 22 countries on the grey-list, including Bulgaria. The remainder are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Mali, Malta, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Vietnam and Yemen.

Countries on the grey-list must complete an action plan to improve AML and CTF frameworks in order to secure removal from the list. The most recent removals were Barbados, Gibraltar, Uganda and the UAE.

SOURCE: PaymentExpert.com (PE).