Suspect cases of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Morocco increased significantly in recent years, according to the annual report of the Financial Data Processing Unit for 2020.
The recently issued report reveals a high incidence of suspected money laundering and terrorist financing in the Kingdom, with an approximate 2,137 cases that year.
This constitutes an increase of 23% compared to 2019, notes the report, while the number of complaints in 2019 was 1,737, and about 1,088 in 2018, and only 722 cases were reported in 2017, and 427 cases in 2016. There are about 318 suspected cases in 2015.
The report revealed that complaints of suspected money laundering dominated the largest percentage during the year 2020, as their number reached 2,113, compared to 24 complaints of suspicion related to terrorist financing.
The same source stated that the total number of complaints, since 2009, the date of the establishment of the unit, reached about 7,117 complaints related to money laundering and 189 complaints related to terrorist financing.
During 2020, the unit intensified its meetings in order to raise awareness of the relevant institutions belonging to the financial and non-financial sectors; In order to improve their understanding of the risks related to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Performance institutions (payment and money transfer services) topped the list of those declaring suspected cases of money laundering and terrorist financing, with a share of 53.9 percent, in contrast to previous years; This is due to the increasing use of these services in the measures imposed by the health crisis related to the outbreak of the “Corona” virus.
Banking institutions ranked second, with a share of 40.1 percent of the total suspicious complaints received against the unit in 2020.
It is noteworthy that the annual report of the National Financial Information Authority, which is a financial information unit of an administrative nature attached to the Prime Minister with the aim of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, for the drawing of 2020, was submitted to Aziz Akhannouch, Prime Minister, last February, and was not published on the official website until recently.
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