AMSF / DBT• Practical Guide on Targeted Financial Sanctions (May 2025)

On 8 May 2025, the Autorité Monégasque de Sécurité Financière (AMSF) published a new Practical Guide #6 on targeted financial sanctions (TFS), produced in partnership with the Direction du Budget et du Trésor (DBT) to "help (...) understand the issues and procedures to be put in place to comply with best practice" in this area in Monaco.

Addressees of the Practical Guide:

For information purposes, the Guide is intended for Financial Institutions (FIs), Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) subject to Law no. 1.362 on the fight against money laundering, terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction financing, and corruption, as amended, and for the general public.

TFS refers to both:

• the freezing of assets: ordered by the administrative authority, the freezing measure immediately restricts the right of ownership, on a temporary basis;
• prohibitions aimed at preventing funds or other property from being made available, directly or indirectly, to designated persons and entities.

The Guide draws attention to the very broad scope of the concepts of funds or economic resources
that may be frozen (p. 6) and refers to the Guidelines of the Advisory Committee on the freezing of funds and economic resources.

Freezing measures applied in Monaco:

• United Nations Security Council (UNSC) freezing measures (FATF Recommendations 6 and 7 require countries to implement TFS regimes in accordance with UNSC resolutions on the prevention and suppression of terrorism and terrorist financing, and the prevention, suppression and interruption of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and its financing).
• freezing measures by the European and French authorities (Franco-Monegasque banking agreements and Monetary Agreement with the European Union).
• autonomous freezing measures taken by the Minister of State in relation to terrorism (on own initiative or after examining a request from another State).

Obligations:

The Guide points out that compliance with the regulations relating to TFSs is closely linked to compliance with many other AML/CFT-P obligations, as defined by Law no. 1.362 amended, and that professionals must ensure, before entering into a business relationship or carrying out a transaction, as well as throughout the business relationship, that none of their clients is concerned by such a measure (p. 8).

It then details the elements of compliance (pp. 8-17):

• development of a satisfactory business risk assessment,
• inclusion of sufficiently explicit measures specific to TFS in internal procedures,
• introduction of an internal control mechanism specific to TFS,
• inclusion of TFS in the training and awareness programme,
• compliance with the KYC obligation,
• filtering or exhaustive review of its client and transaction database(s), any positive results of which must give rise to a suspicious transaction report to the AMSF,
• formalising and keeping a record of all measures taken.

The Guide then provides a list of risk indicators for circumventing the TFS (behaviours or situations) (p. 18), and two practical cases: case 1 focusing on the failure to verify links between clients and individuals or entities under sanctions (p. 19); and case 2 focusing on the use of legal structures to circumvent the TFSs (pp. 20-21).

The Guide concludes by outlining the administrative and criminal penalties for non-compliance with a freezing measure (p. 22) and the other resources available (pp. 23-24).

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Sources :

AMSF Website: https://amsf.mc/sanction-finan...

• Guide Pratique #6 FR
• Guide Pratique #6 ENG

Government Website: https://geldefonds.gouv.mc/doc...

• Direction du Budget et du Trésor, Typologie des sanctions financières ciblées liées au financement du terrorisme (mars 2023)
• Direction du Budget et du Trésor, Typologies des sanctions financières ciblées liées à la prolifération des armes de destruction massive (mars 2023)
• Comité consultatif en matière de gel des fonds et des ressources économiques, Lignes directrices sanctions financières ciblées (V1, 14 décembre 2023)

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