Headline: France’s War on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: Successes and Challenges
Subhead: A look at France’s robust framework to combat financial crimes and areas for improvement
Overview
Before we dive deeper, here are some key takeaways from France’s approach to combating money laundering and terrorist financing:
- Robust framework against financial crimes with notable successes
- Challenges include tax fraud, drug trafficking, terrorism, and terrorist financing
- Areas for improvement: supervision of professionals and non-financial businesses
Assessment by the FATF
Paris, May 17, 2022
According to a recent assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), France’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing have had significant successes yet face challenges.
#### Successes
- Robust law enforcement and confiscation efforts
- Good understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the financial sector
- Effective international cooperation
- Impressive statistics: EUR 4.7 billion annual assets confiscated
- High terrorist financing conviction rate: 93%
#### Challenges
- Tax fraud and drug trafficking
- High-level terrorism and terrorist financing risk
Areas for Improvement
Despite these successes, there are areas where more could be done, particularly in the supervision of professionals involved in legal persons and the real estate sector.
#### Supervision of Professionals and Non-Financial Businesses
- Non-financial compliance with AML and CFT obligations needs improvement
- Greater awareness and compliance required in some sectors
- Improved risk-based supervision is necessary
#### Real Estate and Legal Persons
- The risk of money laundering and terrorist financing in the real estate industry is high
- Ongoing efforts to enhance transparency through beneficial ownership registries
#### Virtual Assets
- A developing focus on virtual assets
FATF’s Conclusion
In conclusion, France’s progress in combating financial crimes has been acknowledged by the FATF, but also underscores the need for continued efforts. The ongoing battle against money laundering and terrorist financing is far from over.
#### Reforms and Implementation
- Proper implementation of recent terrorist financing sanctions reforms required
- Enhanced monitoring of the non-profit sector needed to prevent misuse