Monaco has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, closing a period of international scrutiny that prompted sweeping changes to the Principality’s financial regulator, justice system and approach to tackling illicit money.
FATF President Giles Thomson announced the decision at 5pm Paris time on Friday 30th October, singling out Monaco’s increased seizures of suspected criminal property as evidence of progress.
“We must acknowledge the significant strides made by these jurisdictions,” Thomson said. “Monaco has increased the seizure of property suspected to derive from criminal activities.”
The Principality was removed alongside Bulgaria, Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each had completed an action plan and undergone an on-site assessment by international experts to verify that the required changes had taken effect.
For Monaco, whose financial centre depends on international confidence and cross-border business, the decision lifts a designation it has carried since June 2024. It also recognises that reforms have moved beyond new laws and institutional restructuring to produce results in enforcement.
Thomson nevertheless made clear that the work must continue.
“I will stress, though, that being removed from the grey list is not the end of the road for these countries. They will now work with the FATF-style bodies to continue to strengthen their systems ahead of their next evaluation.”
The warning that preceded Monaco’s grey-listing
The road to Friday’s announcement began before Monaco was placed under FATF monitoring.
In January 2023, MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering monitoring body, published a critical assessment of the Principality’s financial crime defences. It identified weaknesses in supervision, investigations and prosecutions, raising concerns about the low number of money laundering convictions and the even smaller number of confiscation measures.
The assessment exposed a central problem: Monaco needed to demonstrate that its legal framework was being used effectively to investigate financial crime and recover its proceeds.
The government pledged to act. In February 2023, a sovereign ordinance formally established a national coordination and monitoring committee to oversee the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of weapons proliferation.
That year also brought the creation of the Autorité Monégasque de Sécurité Financière (AMSF), replacing SICCFIN and bringing financial intelligence, supervision and sanctions within a new regulatory structure.
By June 2024, nine new laws had been passed to strengthen the Principality’s financial crime framework. But the changes were not yet enough to prevent grey-listing.
Six weaknesses Monaco had to address
On 28th June 2024, the FATF added Monaco to its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
The watchdog acknowledged progress already made, including the establishment of the new regulator, stronger measures to detect and investigate terrorist financing, and improved supervision of non-profit organisations. It nevertheless identified six areas requiring further action.
These covered Monaco’s understanding of money laundering risks linked to income tax fraud committed abroad; international requests to trace and seize criminal assets; sanctions for compliance and beneficial ownership breaches; financial intelligence resources and suspicious transaction reporting; judicial efficiency and penalties for money laundering; and seizures of suspected criminal property.
The designation required Monaco to deliver an agreed action plan and demonstrate its effectiveness through successive progress reports.
It also brought practical consequences. Businesses faced greater scrutiny of transactions, additional compliance demands and complications in international banking relationships.
A national effort to change the system
The response extended across government, the National Council, the judiciary, regulators and the private sector.
A dedicated permanent secretariat began supporting the national coordination committee in August 2024, providing continuity to a programme involving multiple authorities. Monaco later adopted its National Strategy and Action Plan for 2025–2027, placing the immediate FATF requirements within a longer reform programme.
In March 2025, Bruno Dalles, a former director of France’s financial intelligence unit TRACFIN, took over the AMSF. The regulator expanded its workforce and supervisory activity, while judicial resources were reinforced, including the recruitment of three magistrates to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Businesses were expected to improve their own controls. Training sessions, sector risk assessments and guidance addressed customer due diligence, foreign tax fraud risks and the quality and timeliness of suspicious transaction reports. A June 2025 briefing at the Grimaldi Forum brought together more than 500 professionals.
The changes reached beyond banking into property, company services, gaming, luxury goods and other sectors exposed to financial crime risks.
The evidence behind the decision
The central test was whether the reforms produced measurable results.
In October 2025, the FATF recognised a sustained increase in Monaco’s requests to identify and seize criminal assets abroad, stronger financial intelligence resources, greater prosecutorial capacity and increased seizures of suspected criminal property. But further work remained on sanctions and suspicious transaction reporting.
Figures published subsequently by the AMSF illustrated the expansion in enforcement. During 2025, it temporarily suspended 10 suspicious transactions worth more than €87 million, with all 10 cases referred to prosecutors.
The authority received 1,479 suspicious transaction reports, carried out 54 on-site inspections and sent 73 financial intelligence reports to prosecutors — a 59% increase on the previous year.
Enforcement also brought a series of financial penalties. During 2026, the AMSF fined UBS (Monaco) €6 million, Moncrief Private Bank, formerly Banque Havilland (Monaco), €1 million, and Julius Baer Wealth Management (Monaco) €1.5 million for anti-money laundering failings.
The sanctions formed part of the broader enforcement record Monaco needed to demonstrate alongside its legislative reforms.
From the June breakthrough to Friday’s removal
The decisive preliminary finding came in June 2026, when the FATF concluded that Monaco had substantially completed its action plan.
That cleared the way for an on-site assessment to verify that implementation had begun, was being sustained and retained the political commitment necessary to continue.
Friday’s removal marks the completion of that process, more than two years after Monaco entered increased monitoring and almost four years after MONEYVAL adopted the assessment that exposed the weaknesses in its system.
The decision ends FATF grey-list monitoring, but Monaco will continue working with MONEYVAL. Its national strategy runs until 2027, and the next evaluation will test whether the improvements that secured its exit have endured.
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Photo credit: Benjamin Vergely