Morocco Awaits FATF Decision on Money Laundering Gray List Status

The kingdom is part of the list of 23 countries under increased surveillance due to their exposure to money laundering. Since then, several measures have been taken by the government to strengthen the fight against this scourge.

At the end of its meeting on October 20 and 21 last in Paris, the FATF indicated that the monitoring of the situation in Morocco continues, its teams will carry out a field visit "as soon as possible". "The decision to maintain or remove Morocco will be made at the end of these field visits."

During its work, the organization recognized the efforts made by Morocco in the fight against money laundering. These include the improvement of risk-based supervision, and the taking of corrective measures and the application of deterrent sanctions in case of non-compliance.

The experts also noted the strengthening of its framework for monitoring the compliance of financial institutions with the required obligations and the sharing of the results of the risk assessment on the misuse of all categories of legal persons with the private sector and the competent authorities. Added to this are the diversity of suspicious transaction reports and the implementation of asset seizure and confiscation procedures.