Financial Crime World

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Anti-Money Laundering Laws in Cape Verde: A Technical Compliance Review

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Cape Verde has been evaluated on its compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) laws, as per the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The country’s performance was assessed across 40 key requirements, revealing a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses.

Risk Assessment and National Cooperation

Strengths

  • Cape Verde was found to be largely compliant in assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach (R.1).
  • It also received high ratings for national cooperation and coordination (R.2).

Weaknesses

  • The country struggled with implementing targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing (R.6) and non-profit organisations (R.8).

Money Laundering Offence and Confiscation

Partial Compliance

  • Cape Verde was partially compliant in establishing a money laundering offence (R.3).
  • It also received partial compliance ratings for confiscation and provisional measures (R.4), terrorist financing offence (R.5), and targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation (R.7).

Financial Institution Secrecy Laws and Customer Due Diligence

Strengths

  • Cape Verde was found to be compliant in terms of financial institution secrecy laws (R.9) and customer due diligence (R.10).
  • It also received high ratings for internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries (R.18).

Weaknesses

  • The country struggled with implementing targeted measures for correspondent banking (R.14) and money or value transfer services (R.15).

Reporting Suspicious Transactions and Transparency

Partial Compliance

  • Cape Verde received partial compliance ratings for reporting suspicious transactions (R.20) and transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons (R.24), as well as transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements (R.25).
  • It was also found to be non-compliant in terms of DNFBPs’ customer due diligence (R.22).

Regulation and Supervision

Strengths

  • Cape Verde was found to be compliant with regulation and supervision of financial institutions (R.26), powers of supervisors (R.27), and financial intelligence units (R.29).

Weaknesses

  • The country struggled with implementing regulations for DNFBPs (R.28) and cash couriers (R.32).

International Cooperation

Strengths

  • Cape Verde received high ratings in terms of international cooperation, including mutual legal assistance (R.37), freezing and confiscation (R.38), extradition (R.39), and other forms of international cooperation (R.40).

Overall, Cape Verde’s performance on AML laws was mixed, with some areas requiring improvement. The country must work to address these weaknesses in order to strengthen its anti-money laundering framework.