Financial Crime World

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Mauritania Improves Anti-Money Laundering Rules, Says FATF Report

A recent report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has praised Mauritania’s efforts to improve its anti-money laundering rules. The country received a rating of “largely compliant” on most technical requirements, with some areas showing significant progress.

Key Improvements

  • Assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach: Mauritania made notable improvements in this area.
  • National cooperation and coordination: The country demonstrated compliance with requirements related to national cooperation and coordination.
  • Money laundering offenses, confiscation and provisional measures, targeted financial sanctions, and record keeping: Mauritania was found compliant in these areas.

Areas for Improvement

  • Handling of non-profit organizations and higher-risk countries: Mauritania was found non-compliant in this area.
  • Customer due diligence, internal controls, and reporting of suspicious transactions: The country showed partial compliance in these areas.

Progress in Implementing New Technologies

The FATF report highlighted Mauritania’s progress in implementing new technologies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The country was praised for its efforts to:

  • Regulate and supervise financial institutions
  • Exercise powers of supervisors

Notable Progress

Mauritania made significant improvements in several areas, including:

  • Definition of a money laundering offense
  • Confiscation and provisional measures related to terrorism and terrorist financing
  • Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing

Cooperation with Other Countries

The report commended Mauritania’s cooperation with other countries in addressing mutual legal assistance requests and freezing and confiscation of assets.

Conclusion

Overall, the FATF report suggests that Mauritania has made significant progress in implementing anti-money laundering rules. While there is still work to be done to achieve full compliance, the country’s efforts are seen as a positive step towards reducing money laundering and terrorist financing risks.