Financial Crime World

Title: Cabo Verde’s Ongoing Journey to Enhance Financial Crime Prevention Measures: A Look at the Recent GIABA Report

Background

Cabo Verde, a West African nation and a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-Style Regional Body, Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), underwent a mutual evaluation of its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in 2019.

Assessment Results

The new follow-up report by GIABA reveals that Cabo Verde has shown limited improvements since the 2019 evaluation, resulting in the country continuing to remain on the Enhanced Follow-up process. The main findings include:

Limited Progress Made

Overall, Cabo Verde did not meet the expectations set during the 2019 mutual evaluation in terms of addressing technical compliance deficiencies.

Re-Rated Recommendations

Two key Recommendations have been re-rated as a result:

  1. Recommendation 7: Cabo Verde’s progress in implementing effective measures for identifying and freezing or seizing proceeds of crime has been re-rated from Lack of Compliance (LC) to Partially Compliant (PC).
  2. Recommendation 21: The country’s efforts to criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing and implement measures to ensure a proportionate criminalization have been re-rated from Compliant (C) to Lack of Compliance (LC).

Consequences and Efforts Towards Improvement

Continued Enhanced Follow-up

Given the status of the re-rated recommendations, Cabo Verde will continue to remain on the Enhanced Follow-up process and will be required to report regularly to the GIABA Plenary regarding their progress made in strengthening their AML/CFT measures.

Initiatives for Improvement

Despite these challenges, Cabo Verde’s financial sector and government have undertaken several initiatives to enhance their institutional and regulatory frameworks in line with international standards. Key actions include:

  1. Financial intelligence: Increased efforts in the area of financial intelligence.
  2. Awareness: Raising awareness about the importance of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
  3. Collaboration: Enhancing collaboration between various stakeholders involved in anti-financial crime efforts.

Moving Forward

Only time will tell if the efforts taken by Cabo Verde will lead to significant improvements concerning international AML/CFT standards. The anticipated future evaluations will provide key insights.