It also involves an assessment of the effectiveness of a country’s AML/CFT systems with a view to ascertaining whether the country’s “financial systems and the broader economy are protected from the threats of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, thereby strengthening financial sector integrity and contributing to safety and security.” I must say that even before the publication of the Mauritius MER in September 2018, Mauritius had already started bringing legislative amendments to various pieces of legislation—including the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Banking Laws—to address the deficiencies.
New regulations were promulgated under the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act in October 2018, which mirrored the provisions of the FATF Recommendations. Following these legislative changes, Mauritius submitted an application for Technical Compliance Re-rating of 12 recommendations, among which 11 were successfully upgraded.