Financial Crime World

Title: France Passes FATF’s Strict Test Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international organization combating money laundering and terrorist financing, has commended France for its impressive work in these domains. In its latest evaluation report, FATF found France to be at the forefront of countries in combating financial crimes.

French Economy: FATF’s Stamp of Approval

The FATF, established in 1989 with 39 member countries, reportedly found France to have effective policies and activities against money laundering and terrorist financing. The country’s efforts reflect the risks identified.

Impressive Risk Identification

According to the FATF report, France’s extensive work on risk identification has led to a good understanding of money laundering risks across various sectors. The report specifically commended France for its good understanding of terrorist financing risks.

  • Identifying and assessing money laundering and terrorist financing risks
  • Risk assessment and priorities for financial institutions and DNAs

The FATF report recognized France’s effective control system in dealing with money laundering and terrorist financing. The agency noted that France has a solid legal framework for both crimes.

  • Legal basis for criminalizing money laundering
  • Relevant criminal provisions
  • Competent authorities and powers
  • Legal basis for criminalizing terrorist financing
  • Relevant criminal provisions
  • Competent authorities and powers

Terrorist Financing: Top Priority for France

In light of France’s tragic experiences with terrorism in 2015, the country has prioritized the fight against terrorism and its financing.

Notable Achievements

  • Freezing of assets linked to terrorism
  • Cooperation with international partners
  • Investigations and prosecutions

Recommendations: Enhancing Supervision and Reporting

The FATF report provided recommendations for improving France’s efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Training and Awareness

  • Increase the number of trained staff dedicated to combating financial crimes
  • Enhance the quality and availability of training opportunities

Supervision

  • Strengthen supervision and monitoring of professions susceptible to financial crimes, such as real estate
  • Increase the resources dedicated to supervision

Reporting

  • Improve reporting and information sharing between financial institutions and the judiciary
  • Raise awareness and improve reporting from certain professions, particularly the real estate sector

Cooperative Efforts

While France earned high marks in areas such as international cooperation, seizures and confiscations, and investigations and prosecutions related to the financing of terrorism, improvements are needed in supervision and implementation of preventive measures.

Chair Didier Banquy’s Statement

FATF chair Didier Banquy expressed satisfaction with the evaluation report’s findings, but emphasized the need to progressively implement the recommendations.

There is no room for complacency. We must continue our cooperation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing effectively. – Didier Banquy, FATF chair.