Confidentiality and the Drive Against
Money Laundering and Terrorism
Confidentiality is perfectly compatible with the drive to combat money laundering:
1. Confidentiality.
Managers and employees of financial institutions operating in the Principality are bound by the rules of professional secrecy. A breach of these rules may be prosecuted under the provisions of Article 308 of the Penal Code.
This commitment is designed to protect customers' interests and create the confidence required for the banking and financial sector to operate effectively.
In their relationships with depositors and borrowers, banks obtain extensive information on customers' financial status, business affairs and private lives. All of this information is protected by professional secrecy, as is the very existence of a bank account and all of the transactions made to it, particularly those involving asset management.
As in all countries with an organized financial system, professional secrecy does not apply to information requested by the financial industry's supervisory and money laundering authorities (see below), who themselves are bound by secrecy rules, or by local legal authorities involved in a criminal investigation.
Pursuant to the 1963 tax treaty between France and Monaco, the only other exception to professional secrecy concerns persons with France as their fiscal domicile.
2. The drive against money laundering and terrorism.
For many years now, the Principality of Monaco has taken an active approach to combat the activities of organized crime as well as money laundering and terrorist financing.
The laws and regulations in this respect are tightened up regularly and have been assessed favorably by the relevant international organizations:
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
- Moneyval (Council of Europe)
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In addition, in recent years Monaco has substantially strengthened the staffing and resources of its financial intelligence unit, SICCFIN, which has signed agreements with twenty-nine other financial intelligence units and is part of the Egmont Group of 110 financial intelligence units from across the world.
One of the main directives given by H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince when he came to the throne was that Monaco should be at the leading edge of the drive to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
For its part, the Association Monégasque des Activités Financières provides its members with a set of industry recommendations as strict as those prevailing in the world's major banking sectors. The recommendations were first published in 2000 and updated in November 2004. They set out the obligations and diligence required of Monegasque financial institutions with regard to identifying and knowing their customers and monitoring capital movements.
The AMAF was also the driving force behind the creation – by ministerial decree of June 10, 2002 – of the Association Monégasque des Compliance Officers (AMCO), whose members meet regularly to exchange ideas and develop their expertise in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
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