Morocco Sees 53% Surge in Money Laundering Reports as Financial Oversight Tightens

In 2022, the National Financial Intelligence Authority (ANRF) received a total of 5,208 suspicious reports related to money laundering-terrorist financing (ML-TF) cases, an increase of 52.7% compared to 2021. According to the two guides explaining the process of identifying risks and the due diligence measures to be applied from the first contact with a potential client that the Insurance and Social Welfare Control Authority, which accompanies the retirement sector in the implementation of an effective anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system, has published, the suspicious reports on money laundering cases reached 5,171, an increase of 53.76% compared to 2021. The ANRF received 37 reports related to terrorist financing.

As for the number of suspicious reports related to money laundering, it increased from 1,059 in 2018 to 5,171 in 2022, an increase of 388%. "This increase reflects the efforts made by the Authority with its partners in the financial and non-financial sectors and all the actors in the national anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system, which materialized during the year 2022, through the holding of periodic meetings to ensure the monitoring and enrichment of files with the obligated entities of the financial and non-financial sectors, in coordination with the Supervisory and Control Authorities," says the ANRF.

With 34.4% of the reports received in 2022, the banking sector (conventional banks, offshore banks and participatory banks) is at the top of the providers of suspicious reports. It is followed by payment institutions (payment services and money transfer), with a share of 29.7% of the suspicious reports received in 2022. In addition, suspicious reports related to the non-financial sector in the reporting process were received for the first time in 2022.