European grievances against Tunisia with regard to the fight against money laundering, tax evasion and the financing of terrorism, seem to be losing their virulence but are slow to fade. Tunisia is no longer under the "guardianship" of the FATF, but the fact remains that this is not a heard case. All the authorities and structures concerned by these files as well as natural and legal persons are called upon to cooperate more and to denounce suspicions of money laundering and any illicit practice, officials of the Central Bank of Tunisia said on Wednesday. , quoted by TAP.

The years 2018-2019 “constitute the starting point for cooperation between the CTAF and the Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions and their supervisory authorities, said the Secretary General of the Tunisian Commission for Financial Analysis (CTAF), Lotfi Hachicha. During a videoconference devoted to the presentation of the 2018-2019 activity report under the chairmanship of BCT Governor Marouane Abbassi, he added that several objectives have been achieved, mainly the publication of regulatory texts, the organization of awareness days, the conduct of AML/CFT (money laundering-terrorist financing) inspections by the inspectors of the supervisory authorities and the receipt of suspicious transaction reports (DS) “.

86 million DT frozen

Concretely, the CTAF froze the equivalent of 86 million dinars as part of its preventive approach against money laundering and terrorist financing. It observed, at the end of its work, that in 78% of the cases processed in 2019, for reasons of BA money laundering, were still at the stacking or dispersion stage, compared to 64% in 2018. , 29% of the files processed in 2019 were at the integration stage compared to 20% in 2018. During these two years, the Commission received 1,112 suspicious transaction reports (DS), of which 245 files were processed and 710 files were sent to the competent authorities. Most suspicious transaction reports (36% in 2019) relate to fraud and the use of forgery, 29% relate to smuggling and 12% relate to corruption.

» Although the number of DS received by the CTAF from banks represents 86% of declarative flows and continued to increase in 2019 to reach 89%, it is important to mark the beginning of a declarative effort on the part of other taxable persons, including in particular Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) “, indicates the CTAF report.

The commission attributes this "favourable development" to the ongoing effort made by the CTAF in terms of training and communication with reporting entities, with a view to raising their awareness of the challenges of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism ( AML/FT). It also explains it, by the inspection missions carried out by the various control and regulation authorities. The report shows that it is natural persons who monopolize 71% of the total DS received in 2019 against 75% a year earlier.

The year 2019 was marked by an increase in DS received in the names of natural persons, peaking at 421 against 386 declarations in 2018, an increase of 9%. Also, the number of DS received in the names of legal persons increased by 34% to 176 declarations against 129 declarations, a year earlier”.

The author of the declaration must refrain from informing the person concerned of the declaration of which he was the subject and of the measures resulting therefrom. The CTAF and the BCT plead, indeed, in favor of the installation with the financial establishments, of an effective computer system making it possible to detect the doubtful operations, the staffing of the departments of compliance and internal control of these establishments, prerogatives necessary and the resources and means essential to their work.

The governor of the BCT, Marouane Abbassi, spoke during the videoconference, the decashing process, the challenge of digitalization and the means of fighting against the informal, where we can detect the most financial embezzlement.

He declared to this effect “if we enter into digital payment and interoperability, we can process everything with the required speed. All the administrations concerned with informal cash must cooperate to identify the phenomenon. With less taxation too, we can integrate the informal into the formal and we are working on this with the parties and departments concerned”.

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