Seychelles Mutual Evaluation Report has successfully passed the FATF Review Process
November 20, 2018
Tuesday 20th November 2018: According to a communiqué from the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, ESAAMLG, Secretariat, Seychelles has successfully passed the Financial Action Task Force, FATF’s Quality and Consistency Review process for its Mutual Evaluation Report, MER.
The ESAAMLG has completed the second Round of Mutual Evaluation, ME, on Seychelles’ Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework as from 20th November to the 5th December 2017.This assessment was conducted by a team of Assessors from countries within the ESAAMLG region and the resultant report was adopted by the ESAAMLG Council of Ministers in September 2018. COMESA supported the Seychelles MER with the funding from European Union.
The report analyses the level of compliance with the, FATF, 40 Recommendations and the level of effectiveness of the Republic of Seychelles’ AML/CFT system, and provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened. According to the report, Seychelles is largely compliant to Recommendations 40, relating to “Other forms of international cooperation”. In its MER under the First Round of MEs, Seychelles was rated Partially Compliant with requirements of this Recommendation (formerly R. 40).
Based on the results of the MER, Seychelles will now be under the Enhanced Follow-up Process; and is therefore expected, to provide its first FUR for review at the Task Force Meeting in April 2019. The Follow-Up Report, FUR, should be submitted to the Secretariat beginning of February 2019. The Follow-Up Report will focus on the progress Seychelles is making, for discussions by the Task Force of Senior Officials in April 2019. This will give the Task Force an opportunity to determine the level of the progress made, further advise the authorities and make necessary recommendations for consideration by the Council of Ministers at its next meeting in September, 2019.
The Mutual Evaluation is a comprehensive review of the legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks in place in the jurisdiction for combatting money laundering and terrorist and proliferation financing and the effectiveness of the measures. The Report presents key findings and recommendations necessary for Seychelles to continue strengthening its AML/CFT regime and improve its compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards.
And according to Mr. Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, “between now and April 2019, we will work towards amending certain regulations to ensure that we are compliant to international standards set by FATF, to redress the technical deficiencies identified in the MER.