The Directive 2005/60/EC and the FATF Recommendations prescribe and drive performance and assignment of specific tasks and duties for the non-financial sector professionals in the anti-money laundering system. The scope of their activities is limited to financial transactions, bounded by professional confidentiality; where the obligation to report suspicious activity is legislatively restricted to their core business. The low number of reported suspicious transactions by the non-financial sector professionals, as a measure of participation in anti-money laundering prevention initiative, raises a question of whether their duties conflict with their obligations for the respect of fundamental human rights, right to fair trial and a legal defence, citizens' privacy, respect for legal profession and legal profession's independent status. In answering this question, the analysis looked at international legislations, FATF Recommendations and Reports, as well as several studies and assessments. Additionally, the results provided by the legal community - relationship between the total number of reported suspicious transactions and the number of suspicious transactions reported by the non-financial sector professionals in some EU country members, were also analysed. The primary goal of investigating the relationship between the legal foundations vs. the numerical data for the chosen EU country members is understanding the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering system as a whole, assuming that the non-financial sector professionals are its crucial element.
