Terms of reference for money laundering audit to be given to Cyprus Central Bank

The technocrats of the Troika continued on Tuesday morning their meetings with Finance Ministry officials, at the Finance Ministry, on issues related to the Cyprus Memorandum, according to CNA sources.

The meetings between the two sides will continue this afternoon.

Meanwhile, CNA sources said that the Troika and Finance Ministry are expected to reach an agreement today on the terms of reference governing the independent audit into of Cyprus’ legal framework against money laundering and its implementation.

The audit into Cyprus’ legislation against money laundering will be conducted by independent private firm with the participation of the Moneyval Committee of the Council of Europe.

According to the same sources, the terms of reference will be given tomorrow to the Central Bank, which will conduct the competition through which the auditing firm will be selected through summary procedure, due to the limited time remains until the end of March to assess Cyprus’ legal framework against money laundering.

Excluded from international capital markets, Cyprus has requested financial assistance from the EU bailout mechanism after its two largest banks sought state aid following massive losses of their Greek bond holdings estimated at €4.5 billion, as a result of the Greek sovereign debt haircut.

Nicosia rejects allegations that Cypriot banks engage in money-laundering activities. The government has repeatedly said that it has “nothing to hide”, ahead of an independent audit of compliance with anti-money laundering regulations decided at a recent Eurogroup meeting.