On 23rd January, MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering monitoring body, released its Mutual Evaluation Report into Monaco’s AML/CTF measures.
The report grades the principality’s level of compliance as ‘moderate’ against FATF recommendations, and encouraged Monaco to:
- Further strengthen its AML/CTF measures relating to the investigation and prosecution of money laundering, confiscating and recovering the proceeds of crime as well as strengthening its supervisory system
- Undertake major improvements relating to transparency of legal persons, , as well as to TF investigations and prosecutions
- Improve AML/CTF risk understandings and reporting systems in the private sector
Moneyval also noted that ML investigations and prosecutions do not appear consistent with Monaco’s risk profile, with particular shortcomings noted with regard to complex cases. Firms operating in and conducting business in Monaco should review MONEYVAL’s conclusions and resulting recommendations.