The Governor of the Bank of Mauritius (BoM), Harvesh Seegoolam, who this morning opened a workshop on money laundering, announced that the Mauritius Action Plan to be submitted to the FATF will be ready in September, well before the initially revised deadline. At the same time, he announced that a "progress report" was sent last week.

"Mauritius has, in February 2020, given a high level political commitment to the FATF to implement the Action Plan within agreed timelines. I must here say that there is a concerted effort at all levels among respective Ministries, Regulatory Bodies, Law Enforcement Agencies and other competent Authorities in view of implementing the Action Plan. This concerted effort is another tangible proof of our commitment to deliver on the Action Plan by September 2020, which is well before the agreed timeline of the FATF," he said.

Harvesh Seegoolam, who was addressing the Money Laundering Reporting Officers, replied that in one year Mauritius has managed to comply with 53 of the FATF's 58 recommendations and that the high level committee chaired by the Prime Minister "has done monumental work to ensure that Mauritius complies with all the conditions set out in the FATF".

He made it clear that technical compliance is essential, but "is no longer the only determining criterion taken into account by the FATF ". The effectiveness of legislative and regulatory frameworks is equally crucial, he observed. The FATF President , he noted, stresses the importance of implementing these standards. This is why the BoM has made efforts on all fronts to comply with the AML CFT standards recommended by international organizations. In this tale, new supervisors have been appointed. The FIU, whose initial responsibility was the collection of information, is now responsible for supervising the legal, real estate and jewellery professions.

The governor announced that the BoM has so far held seven training sessions for financial services professionals and seven more will be held until the end of the month. He recalled that Mauritius has made a high-level political commitment to the FATF to implement the action plan within the agreed timeframe. "This requires concerted efforts at all levels between law enforcement agencies, respective ministries for the implementation of the action plan," he stressed.

From the outset of his remarks, the Governor maintained that the effective implementation of robust anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing measures "remains a key priority." "As governor, I have placed the fight against money laundering at the top of my priorities. Strengthening the regulatory confidence that investors have in Mauritius is of paramount importance, especially as we are a long-established international financial centre. He stressed that the BOM will not compromise on this point. "Failure to comply with the standards will not be tolerated by the Bank and will result in severe penalties.

I have given clear guidelines for us to collaborate on a permanent basis with the relevant national and foreign authorities engaged in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing to this end as well," he said.

Harvesh Seegoolam finally announced that, in line with one of the fatF recommendations in the context of the fight against money laundering, the BOM has already launched a centralized e-KYC platform. This project will facilitate identity verification and help improve KYC control in various business segments in the country. The platform will also have access to the national InfoHighway for the validation of KYC information.