IMF Staff Country Reports

This technical note analyses anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in Iceland. Iceland’s banking sector is comparatively small, and the geographical reach of cross-border payments activity is limited. The AML/CFT supervisory understanding and assessment of ML and terrorism financing (TF) risks in the banking sector has improved in recent years. Further refinements to the supervisory risk assessment tools and increased data collection will enhance the accuracy of the authorities’ focus for AML/CFT risk-based supervision of banks. Iceland has taken significant steps to establish a registration regime for virtual asset service providers (VASP) established in or operating in the country, however, efforts should continue to detect unlicensed activities. Going forward, a continued focus on thematic inspections would be a welcome. In some instances, the pace of completion of inspections has been slow. To drive meaningful change in the levels of AML/CFT compliance and the effectiveness of AML/CFT controls in banks (in particular, enterprise ML/TF risk assessment, customer due diligence, and suspicious transaction reporting), an enhanced supervisory presence through more frequent onsite activities and an increased pace in the completion of inspections would be beneficial.