>The CEO of Samifin, Lamina Boto Tsaradia giving details to the press yesterday. The Big Island is struggling to meet the FATF recommendations. The establishment of a collection agency is expected. Can do better. The Big Island, in its policy of fighting money laundering, remains on the status of moderate actor. The situation was exposed yesterday in Anosy by the Malagasy financial intelligence unit (Samifin), during the capacity-building workshop for the first concerned in this fight. "Samifin was set up in 2008. It was in 2016 that the first arrests were made against the launderers. Since then, there has been an improvement in the implementation of legislation governing money-laundering. However, no country can boast of one hundred percent control of this fight against money laundering," said Lamina Boto Tsaradia, Director General of Samifin. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body, develops recommendations and international standards in the fight against money laundering. It is on the basis of these recommendations that a country's performance is evaluated. "A recommendation on the eleven recommended in the short term by the FATF has been reached by Madagascar at a moderate level. The state of the Big Island's performance on the rest of the recommendations is still below the objectives expected by the FATF," adds the CEO of Samifin. Suspicious transactions A way for this official to advocate for the improvement of the laws governing the fight against money laundering. During 2018, Samifin recorded one hundred and eighty-one cases of suspicious transaction reports. Last year this figure dropped to one hundred and sixty-four. An improvement noted despite the shortcomings allowing the services of struggle to optimize their actions. The law on the recovery of illicit assets should be one of the first "urgent" laws. Unfortunately, the country is being stripped of this law. The problem is that the text has still not been published. The Financial Intelligence Services are waiting firmly for the adoption of implementing decrees that must detail the text and the establishment of a collection agency responsible for managing the seized property for the benefit of the State.