In recent months, the register of beneficial owners of Monegasque companies has experienced unusual activity. An endless stream of business leaders parade in front of the small office, marked by a simple sheet of paper, at the heart of the economic development department.
“Today it’s still going well. The other time, the line was like a serpentine”, tells, in this month of December 2023, a well-dressed business leader. But the transparency exercise, which aims to list the real owners of companies behind possible nominees, annoys some. “Now we want to know how you do your hair in the morning, your shoe size”sighs one of them, while waiting for his turn.
This excitement is the result of a general mobilization of the Monegasque authorities who seek at all costs to avoid joining the “grey list” of countries deficient in the fight against money laundering. Because the Rock lives under the threat of a deterioration of its reputation as an international financial center and could find itself in the same category as the United Arab Emirates, Gibraltar and Bulgaria.
The warning shot came from Moneyval, a Council of Europe body responsible for assessing the level of compliance and effectiveness of tools to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. His Monaco evaluation reportdelivered in December 2022, certainly recognizes the progress and efforts made by the Principality, but also points to a series of “gaps”, “vulnerabilities”, “failures”and deplores the“lack of analysis of certain risks”. Monaco is not up to par on a large part of the fifty evaluation criteria in its grid.
The Principality suffers, according to Moneyval, from “its international openness, particularly in terms of the offering of banking and financial services”which makes it one “target of choice for suspicious financial flows”. Monaco is popular with many criminals as a place for laundering many crimes and offenses committed around the world: tax fraud, embezzlement, corruption. The question of the concealment of Russian assets there since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a recent illustration of this.
Verdict current 2024
“The Principality is determined to continue implementing the Moneyval recommendations in order to comply with the most demanding international standards”, quickly announced the head of government, Pierre Dartout, after the publication of the report. Since then, a twelve-month observation period has begun during which Monaco must demonstrate the efforts made to comply with international rules and thus avoid finding itself on the “grey list” of jurisdictions subject to enhanced surveillance. The decision will be made, during 2024, by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body responsible for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
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