Financial Crime World

Morocco’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Report: A Mixed Bag of Compliance and Non-Compliance

The latest assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has given Morocco a mixed bag of ratings for its compliance with global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards. While Morocco has made significant progress in implementing some FATF recommendations, it still lags behind in others.

Areas of Compliance

Morocco has shown strong compliance in several areas, including:

  • Assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach (R.1)
  • National cooperation and coordination (R.2)
  • Money laundering offence (R.3)
  • Confiscation and provisional measures (R.4)
  • Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing (R.6)
  • Financial institution secrecy laws (R.9)

Areas of Non-Compliance

However, Morocco has fallen short in other areas, including:

  • Non-profit organisations (R.8)
  • Customer due diligence (R.10)
  • Record keeping (R.11)
  • Correspondent banking (R.13)
  • Money or value transfer services (R.14)
  • New technologies (R.15)
  • Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements (R.24, R.25)

Improvement Needed

The report highlights several areas where Morocco needs to improve, including:

  • Regulation and supervision of financial institutions (R.26)
  • DNFBPs (R.28)
  • Powers of supervisors (R.27)
  • Law enforcement and investigative authorities (R.31)
  • International cooperation, including mutual legal assistance (R.37), extradition (R.39), and other forms of cooperation (R.40)

Progress and Commitment

Despite these shortcomings, the FATF report acknowledges Morocco’s progress in implementing several recommendations, including:

  • Targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation (R.7)
  • Wire transfers (R.16)
  • Financial intelligence unit (R.29)
  • Statistics (R.33)

The Moroccan government has welcomed the FATF report as a valuable tool in its ongoing efforts to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime. The government has pledged to address the remaining areas of non-compliance and to continue working closely with international partners to combat financial crimes.

Access the Full Report

The full report can be accessed on the FATF website.