EU AML/CFT Global Facility

Regional Conference on FATF Rec 8 - Mauritius
2021-11-22 - 2021-11-24 | Mauritius, Mauritius
The Regional Workshop on ‘Compliance with International and EU Requirements concerning the FATF Recommendation 8’ took place on 22-24 November 2021, at Le Meridien Hotel in Mauritius.
It was organised by the EU Global Facility on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing in collaboration with the Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance of Mauritius.
The workshop, which will run through Wednesday 24 November 2021, witnesses the participation of representatives from Mauritius, Panama, Madagascar, Bangladesh, the Seychelles, Tunisia, Jordan, Zambia, among others. It seeks to allow regulators from Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) and representatives of Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) to exchange best practices and challenges faced among themselves and with the EU and other states on the applied methodology, chosen policies and work undertaken to ensure compliance of their legislation and practice with FATF Recommendation 8 requirements.
The event will also provide a tangible opportunity to proceed with concrete steps to promote effective supervision of NPOs and ultimately assist in relevant mutual evaluation assessments in relation to the said recommendation by the participating states. On the last day of the workshop, the Global Facility will also present its recent research report titled “Typologies of the Illicit Financial Abuse of NPO Sector – Specificity, Complexity, Complicity and Harm”.
In his keynote address to the audience, Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Hon. Mahen Kumar Seeruttun thanked the EU Global Facility for its “unwavering support to Mauritius at all times,” noting that “the EU Global Facility has provided us with technical assistance whenever requested, providing us with the highest quality of support and experts.”
Team Leader of the EU Global Facility, David Hotte, congratulated Mauritian partners on the successful delisting from the FATF grey list in October 2021, saying “we are very proud to have contributed, along with other international partners like GIZ, the UK, IMF and the UN, among others, to the delisting of Mauritius and we will continue working together even after this milestone. It is only the beginning of a new and promising era.”
For his part, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation, H.E. Vincent Degert, commended the government, civil servants and public sector of Mauritius, stating “the government has repeatedly expressed its wish to address all ESAAMLG recommendations and to improve all their immediate outcomes scores, thus to become a role model for many countries worldwide.”
“I can only felicitate this attitude as it is very important that the current momentum for reform is maintained, to make these achievements sustainable and far-reaching, building on the very relevant tools that were developed with the help of the EU Global Facility assistance and of the other international donors and continuing their capacity building to be able to reach concrete results.”
The workshop is part of a series of activities organised by the EU Global Facility in Mauritius from November 16 to 25th, 2021.

Operational Terrorist Financing Table Top Exercise in Mauritius
2021-11-23 - 2021-11-24 | Mauritius, Mauritius
The EU AML-CFT Global Facility will deliver a Table Top Training Event to AML-CFT agencies and their partners in Mauritius on 23-24 November 2021.
The workshop will use a live exercise involving CT officers, law enforcement and prosecutors in relation to exploiting fast time financial intelligence in the investigation of counter terrorism.
The exercise will take the form of a Table Top Training Event where attendees will be facilitated through a realistic terrorist simulation towards the stated objectives below. The simulation will outline a large terrorist event and will then focus on developing financial investigation and intelligence activity that will support the simulated criminal justice event. The exercice will be based on the geography and local economy of the Mauritius environment
The learning facilitation will lead the participants towards the identification of the financial footprint that pre-and-post terrorism attack activity leaves. Further participant analysis will allow for the development of an immediate financial investigative action plan that will steer and advise the local Mauritian authorities should an incident occur.
Ultimately, the activity seeks to support Mauritian partners to improve their capacities to:

– Prevent and detect the funding of terrorism – utilising the ITAC model.
– Support the investigation of a terrorist attack through the utilisation of Financial Intelligence including ‘crimes in action’ utilising a Post Incident Financial Investigation Actions Plan.
– Outline the financial behaviours that indicate operational terrorist financing to aid preventative and post incident investigations.

BO Disclosure Framework workshop with the Bank of Mauritius
2021-11-23 - 2021-11-25
The three-day onsite workshop tackled the topic of “BO disclosure frameworks, supervisors and obliged entities: from multi-pronged approach to multi stakeholder engagement“.
Organised jointly by the EU AML/CFT Global Facility and the Bank Of Mauritius, the workshop constitutes the result of several joint activities conducted in the past month aimed of enhancing the understanding and effective implementation of Beneficial Ownership disclosure standards in Mauritius, by both the BoM and the obliged entities under its supervision.
This engaging public-private perspective resulted in dedicated “Beneficial Ownership Identification and Verification Guidelines” as well as a dedicated “Beneficial Ownership Supervision Handbook”. These Guidelines and Handbook will be extensively discussed with the BoM as well as other supervisors (e.g., FSC, FIU, AGO, MIPA) and their obliged entities under supervision during the course of the workshop.
Press Communiqué of the activity:
Financial Services: Workshop to reinforce capacity of financial institutions supervisors
Our team led by Arnaud Stien and Alexandre Taymans led discussions focused on the key features and challenges of international and EU BO standards, outreach tools that can be implemented as well as supervisory and sanctioning mechanisms available. New areas of cooperation were also discussed.
In his address, First Deputy Governor of the BoM Mr Kona Yerukunondu expressed gratitude to EU Global Facility for their “invaluable support to implement the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) action plan and the country’s exit from the FATF’s grey list”.
“Experts of EU Global Facility have been a key partner for Mauritius to improve techniques on AML/CFT and I am confident that the assistance provided by the EU will significantly enhance the skills of supervisors as they are highly instrumental in bringing industry practices at par with global standards.”
Mr Kona Yerukunondu also emphasised the importance of education as an effective tool to transform compliance cultures for organisations.
Mr Arnaud Stien underlined the opportunities arising for the country following its delisting from the FATF grey list.
“It is crucial to keep the momentum high as Mauritius embarks on a new journey as a global community. For the way forward, Mauritius needs to stay compliant and we will continue supporting the country in new areas of cooperation in the future.”

EuroMed meeting of the Forum of Prosecutors General
2021-11-23 - 2021-11-25 | Eurojust, The Hague, Netherlands
On November 23rd to 25th, 2021, the EU Global Facility on AML CFT participated in the third EuroMed meeting of the Forum of Prosecutors General, which took place at Eurojust in The Hague.
Our Senior Expert on Justice, Victoria Palau, was involved in a series of meetings, including the first cross-regional meeting of the Prosecutors general of the Mediterranean countries and EU MS, which led to the approval of one the first cross-regional Strategic Plan for judicial cooperation.
One of the two strategic topics and action plans approved by the Prosecutors general encompassed the judicial cooperation on the confiscation of crime proceeds and asset recovery, a subject matter at the core of the EU Global Facility’s work as it constitutes a crucial part of the financial investigation and penal chain on AML/CFT.
The third meeting of the EuroMed Forum of Prosecutors General was preceded by the 14th meeting of CrimEx, the expert group in judicial criminal matters of the EMJ programme.

Throughout those two days, the EU Global Facility, represented by Mrs Palau, and Euromed Justice discussed ways to enhance their cooperation on judicial matters.
