The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Monaco from its increased-monitoring list Friday after completing reforms and passing an on-site review, changing its status in the watchdog’s anti-money-laundering process.
The same decision covered Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire. FATF said the jurisdictions had completed their action plans and passed on-site reviews.
FATF identified weaknesses in Monaco’s anti-money-laundering system in June 2024, including risks related to money laundering and income tax fraud committed abroad. The reforms included more requests to foreign authorities to locate criminal assets and seek their seizure, as well as sanctions for breaches of anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing rules and basic and beneficial ownership requirements.
Monaco completed a program to resource its financial intelligence unit, improved suspicious-transaction reporting and increased resources for investigative judges and prosecutors, FATF said.
Christophe Mirmand, Monaco’s head of government, said the decision recognized more than two years of coordinated work by state agencies. “We do not see this as a finish line,” he said. FATF said continued work with MONEYVAL would help Monaco preserve the improvements.
