Financial Crime World

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Democratic Republic of Congo’s Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism Efforts

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Key Findings

The following are key findings on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its efforts to combat money laundering and financing terrorism:

  • The DRC has a limited understanding of Money Laundering/Financing of Terrorism (ML/FT) risks in various sectors, including:
    • Microfinance
    • Savings and credit cooperatives
    • Cash exchange
    • Funds and securities transfer
    • Electronic money
    • Insurance
  • The banking sector has some knowledge of ML/FT risks but unsatisfactory implementation of preventive measures.
  • The DRC lacks a secure identification system, which hampers the duty of care for financial institutions to verify the identity of their customers.
  • There are notable shortcomings in the implementation of national coordination and supervision policy emphasizing the risk-based approach.

Technical Compliance

The DRC’s legal framework, developed in 2004, has not been updated to keep pace with international standards, including the 2012 FATF Recommendations. This indicates a lack of technical compliance with global anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism (AML/CFT) standards.

National Policy and Coordination

The following are key findings on national policy and coordination:

  • A national risk assessment (NRA) was conducted in 2013, but its findings were not approved.
  • The DRC does not have a comprehensive AML/CFT strategy.
  • The Committee to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (COLUB), established by the government, lacks resources and cannot meet regularly.

The following are key findings on legal system and operational issues:

  • CENAREF, an administrative financial intelligence unit, has limited operational capacity.
  • Criminal prosecuting authorities have a wide range of measures at their disposal to obtain relevant information for investigations but do not make optimal use of all data available.
  • The Office of the Special Adviser to the Head of State on Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption, Money Laundering, and Financing Terrorism exists as a strategic high-level response to combat these scourges.

Overall Level of Effectiveness and Technical Compliance

The DRC has put in place an AML/CFT system that is still relatively ineffective. With regard to technical compliance, the legal framework developed in 2004 has mostly not been updated to keep pace with developments in international standards.

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