Monaco exits global money laundering watchlist: The playground for the rich is officially less ‘grey’

A general view shows moored yachts at Hercules Port during the 32nd edition of the International Monaco Yacht Show in Monaco in this file photo taken on September 27, 2023. — AFP pic

First Published: Saturday, 31 Oct 2026 10:59 AM MYT

PARIS, Oct 31 — Global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday it had removed Monaco and three other countries from its “grey list”, two years after it put the principality among its territories requiring increased monitoring.

Bulgaria, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ivory Coast were also removed from the list, the organisation said after a plenary meeting.

The countries had completed promised action plans “and will no longer be subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process,” it added.

The Paris-based FATF monitors efforts by more than 200 countries and jurisdictions to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Grey list nations are considered to have “strategic deficiencies” in countering money laundering and terrorist financing, while cooperating with the FATF to correct the problems.

Long known as a playground for the rich and famous, tiny Monaco, with a population of less than 40,000, attracts moneyed residents from around the world with its extremely favourable tax regime, with no income or wealth taxes.

The FATF said Monaco had made “significant progress” in strengthening the effectiveness of its efforts to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.

“This decision recognizes more than two years of concrete, rigorous and coordinated work by all of the State’s authorities and departments,” the head of Monaco’s government, Christophe Mirmand, said in a statement.

The FATF had urged the Mediterranean principality to boost resources for investigators and prosecutors and increase seizures of property suspected to derive from criminal activities.

It called for more effective cooperation on countering money laundering and terrorist financing, and for officials to send more requests to identify and seek the seizure of criminal assets abroad.

Monaco introduced an offence of presumed money laundering to facilitate the prosecution of cases involving suspicious funds.

It also boosted funding for its financial regulator and created a special unit in the public prosecutor’s office.

“We do not see this as a finish line: what matters now is what Monaco delivers over the long term,” Mirmand added.

Dozens of money-laundering probes were underway in 2025, and convictions rose from three in 2021 to 28 in 2025, according to Monaco’s authorities.

Bulgaria, which had been put on the grey list in 2023, also welcomed its removal.

This “means more confidence in our country, more investment and more jobs,” Prime Minister Roumen Radev said in a statement.

It will also facilitate Bulgaria’s international financial transfers, he added.

Democratic Republic of Congo had been on the grey list since 2022 and Ivory Coast since 2024.

The exit of the four countries leaves 18 on the FATF’s grey list, including Bosnia, Bolivia, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the British Virgin islands.

Three countries are on the FATF’s black list of countries that are high risk for money laundering and terrorism financing: Iran, Myanmar and North Korea. — AFP