In a new report the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL encourages Monaco to further strengthen measures to combat money laundering (ML) and financing of terrorism (FT), in particular when it comes to investigating and prosecuting money laundering, confiscating and recovering proceeds of crime as well as strengthening its supervisory system. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the country’s level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations as observed during a visit concluded in March 2022.
MONEYVAL acknowledges that the country has demonstrated a moderate level of effectiveness in relation to ML/TF risk understanding, international cooperation, the application of AML/CFT preventive measures by the private sector, the use of financial intelligence and the implementation of the United Nations targeted financial sanctions (TFS) on TF and proliferation financing (PF). The report finds that major improvements are also required regarding the transparency of legal persons, as well as TF investigations and prosecutions. Fundamental improvements are also needed to enhance effectiveness on supervision, ML investigations and prosecutions and confiscation of proceeds of crime.
Major improvements are needed to enhance the Principality’s effectiveness in international cooperation. Monaco generally seeks the co-operation of its counterparts, although not entirely in line with the risk and context of the jurisdiction. The prosecution authorities execute requests satisfactorily, but systemic and unusual legislative obstacles hinder the provision of mutual legal assistance by Monaco. As far as extradition is concerned, the restrictive interpretation by the courts of the dual criminality principle results in one in two requests being refused.
Based on the results of its evaluation, MONEYVAL decided to apply its enhanced follow-up procedure and invited Monaco to report back in December 2024.
