Monaco has met another key international standard in the fight against money laundering, this time with an agreement that will unite the Attorney General, the Director of Public Security and SICCFIN.
The Prince’s Government announced on Friday 11th August that a tripartite agreement on cooperation, coordination and exchange of information in the fields of money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has been entered into by Monaco’s Attorney General – the main legal advisor to the government, the Director of Public Security, and SICCFIN (Service d’Information et de Contrôle sur les Circuits Financiers).
The agreement responds to the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Recommendation No. 2 adopted in 2013, which states that countries should have national policies which ensure that policy-makers, the financial intelligence unit (FIU), law enforcement authorities, supervisors and other relevant competent authorities have effective mechanisms in place which enable them to cooperate and exchange information with each other concerning the development and implementation of policies and activities to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
According to the government, “The agreement, by evoking the rights and obligations of the three signatory authorities, defines in a very practical and concrete way the relationships that they must maintain between them in order to promote and strengthen the exchange of information.”
The government says the move will consecrate current good practices between the authorities, particularly in the urgent processing of certain communications andrequests and by setting deadlines for response, as well as helping to identify trends and patterns of money laundering in the Principality.
“This shared analysis will therefore allow a better apprehension of the risk and optimise the criminal response provided by the authorities investigation and prosecution,” concluded the government.
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Photo credit: Stéphane Danna, Government Communication Department
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