Compliance of Serbia's normative and institutional capacities with current international standards for the prevention of money laundering

The nature of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) area in the context of global financial system requires augmented international cooperation. Establishing an effective system involves coordinating worldwide activities of countries and reflecting, in their national laws, formal treaty obligations to criminalize and seize the proceeds from crime. Serbia, as a candidate for membership, gravitates towards EU legislation, so this paper aims to analyze how the obligations arising from relevant EU regulation are transposed in Serbian legislation to assess the country's normative and institutional readiness. The research entailed a detailed review and comparative analysis of the current regulations and institutional capacities of the European Union and Serbia. It has been concluded that the Serbian AML/CFT regime is mostly in line with the EU regulations, having passed the excessive Moneyval check in five mutual evaluation reports. Being placed on the enhanced monitoring list in 2016, Serbia implemented all FATF recommendations and received a positive final assessment of compliance, which discontinues the need for further monitoring. Legal solutions in this area are up-to-date in relation to the applicable EU regulations and enable Serbia's effective participation in European efforts to identify and deal with AML/CFT threats.