Financial Crime World

Senegal’s Stride Forward in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

According to the latest Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Senegal, a West African nation, has made significant progress in strengthening its measures against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Senegal’s Progress According to the Report

The report sets out the progress Senegal has made in improving its level of compliance with the FATF standards since the country’s 2018 evaluation and associated follow-up recommendations (FURs). The following are some key developments:

  • Legislation: Senegal enacted a revised Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) law in 2018, bringing its legal framework up to international standards.
  • Institutional Framework: The country established an Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in 2019 to coordinate efforts to combat financial crimes and terrorism financing.
  • Regulations: Senegal introduced new regulations in 2020 that require designated anti-money laundering (AML) officers at regulated entities and provide new guidance on customer due diligence.

Challenges Remain

Despite these efforts, challenges persist, particularly in the areas of:

  1. Risk assessment:
    • Enhancing the risk assessment process to identify and understand money laundering and terrorist financing threats.
  2. Implementation of sanctions:
    • Developing and implementing a centralized sanctions list.
  3. International cooperation:
    • Strengthening international cooperation mechanisms, particularly with neighboring countries and other jurisdictions.

FATF’s Recommendations

The report suggests several areas where Senegal should focus its efforts to overcome these challenges. Some of these areas include:

  1. Risk Assessment:
    • Enhancing the risk assessment process.
    • Identifying high-risk sectors for money laundering and terrorist financing.
    • Developing a national risk assessment strategy.
  2. Sanctions:
    • Establishing a centralized sanctions list.
    • Implementing effective sanctions to freeze and confiscate proceeds of financial crimes.
  3. International Cooperation:
    • Strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements to facilitate cross-border information sharing and collaboration.

The MER acknowledges that Senegal has made notable progress but recognizes that the country still needs to address certain areas to meet the full requirements of the FATF standards.

Other FATF Evaluations

This report is just one of several published recently by the FATF evaluating countries like Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. The goal is to help strengthen the global response to financial crimes and terrorism financing efforts.