The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-money laundering watchdog, announced on Friday, June 28 that Monaco has been added to its ‘grey list’ of countries subject to increased monitoring. The Principality is the highest profile European jurisdiction to be added to the FATF grey list in years.
At its plenary meeting in Singapore, the FATF also added Venezuela to the list of nations identified as having “strategic deficiencies” in countering money laundering and terrorist financing. Both countries are recognised for their cooperation with the FATF to address these issues.
In a 325-page report, the committee of experts on the evaluation of measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, Moneyval scrutinised the level of compliance of Monaco’s system to combat money laundering according to 40 recommendations established by the FATF.
Over the last year, the Monegasque State has fought in vain to avoid the sentence, which could be synonymous with a loss of attractiveness for the Principality.