Egypt’s Efforts to Combat Money Laundering Come Under Scrutiny as MENAFATF Completes Assessment

The Middle East & North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) has completed a comprehensive review of Egypt’s measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The assessment aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Egypt’s financial system safeguards against abuse and its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations.

Assessment Methodology

The assessment was conducted in two phases: remotely from March 1-9, 2020, and September 16 to October 7, 2020. The review evaluated Egypt’s financial system safeguards against abuse and assessed its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations.

Key Findings and Priority Actions

The assessment report provides an overview of the key findings and priority actions identified during the evaluation. Some of the key findings include:

• Effective implementation of sanctions: Egypt has implemented effective sanctions to prevent the financing of terrorist organizations.
• Strengthened financial intelligence: The country’s financial intelligence unit has been strengthened, enabling it to better identify and track suspicious transactions.
• Improved customer due diligence: Financial institutions in Egypt have improved their customer due diligence procedures to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Next Steps

The outcome of this review will likely have important implications for the country’s financial sector and its ongoing efforts to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing. To address the identified gaps, MENAFATF recommends that Egypt:

• Enhance customer due diligence: Improve customer due diligence procedures to ensure that financial institutions are able to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
• Strengthen cooperation with international organizations: Enhance cooperation with international organizations, such as Interpol and Europol, to share intelligence and best practices.
• Continuously monitor and evaluate effectiveness: Continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of its measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Conclusion

The MENAFATF assessment is a significant step forward in ensuring that Egypt’s financial system remains robust and secure. The outcome of this review will likely have important implications for the country’s financial sector and its ongoing efforts to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing.