With the implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (Grupo de Acção Financeira Internacional (GAFI) recommendations listed in the Master Plan by the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Angola is no longer subject to the monitoring process of money laundering and terrorist financing at a global level in accordance with the recent report issued by that Task Force.
FATF considered that the Angolan State carried out a wide and comprehensive governance programme and complied with the external and internal regulations in order to ensure that the Angolan Financing System is in line with the international and regional requirements.
The adoption and implementation of 23 of the 41 new regulations, in which the licensing of banks, risk governance, credit management among others are highlighted, were crucial aspects analysed and duly considered by such an international body.
Last January, FATF visited Angola in order to follow the process of implementation of reforms and actions to improve the areas previously identified in 2010, having thus identified the key-points where BNA registered significant progress:
- a legal framework was appropriately established and no asset related to the terrorist financing was identified when applying appropriate interim and confiscation measures.
- implementation of automated custom due diligence procedures to monitor the client in a more rapid and precise way, what led to a better control of the ongoing transactions and of the customer due diligence.
- the financial Intelligence unit became fully operational, thus guaranteeing its autonomy and allowing the private sector for a greater cohesion and improvement in the quality of its reports.
- approval of the legislation foreseeing international cooperation in criminal matters, including the combat of money laundering and terrorist financing, suggesting the Minister of Justice to take reasonable measures for the development of rules needed to apply this rule.
As Angola, Algeria and Panama have also proven to be successfully developing to comply with the lines of action of this entity. On the other hand, Brazil has already failed the assessment.
FATF is the global body that establishes standards for money laundering prevention and terrorist financing combat. In order to protect the international financial system from the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing and to encourage the compliance with the MLP/TFC standards, FATF identified jurisdictions holding strategic deficiencies and together with other FATF-style regional groups (FSRBs) has been working to find solutions for such deficiencies which are considered a risk for the international financial system.