Confidentiality of Information
Confidentiality Rules
To ensure that our clients are well informed, here are some fundamental rules governing banking and financial activities in the Principality of Monaco regarding confidentiality and the fight against money laundering, organized crime, and terrorism.
Confidentiality of information collected by banks and portfolio management companies.
The officers and staff of banks established in the Principality are bound by professional secrecy. Any breach of this secrecy is punishable by the penalties set forth in Article 308 of the Penal Code.
The purpose of professional secrecy as applied to banks is to ensure the proper functioning of the banking sector, which relies on customer trust and is primarily intended to protect customers’ interests.
In their dealings with depositors and borrowers, credit institutions are required to collect a wide range of information regarding their financial situation, business affairs, and private lives.
Thus, information regarding transactions—particularly wealth management transactions—carried out by bank customers, as well as the existence, operation, and balance of bank accounts, is covered by professional secrecy. Portfolio management companies are subject to the same rules as banks regarding professional secrecy in their dealings with clients.
As in all countries with an organized financial system, however, professional secrecy is not enforceable against the supervisory bodies of the Monegasque banking system—which are themselves subject to professional secrecy—nor against the Monegasque judicial authorities acting within the framework of criminal proceedings.
Apart from these cases, professional secrecy cannot be
Combating Money Laundering
The Principality of Monaco has long pursued an active policy to combat organized crime, money laundering, and the financing of terrorism.
To this end, legislation (laws, Sovereign Ordinances, and Ministerial Decrees) is regularly strengthened and has, on several occasions, been favorably assessed by the relevant international bodies:
• FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering)
• MONEYVAL (Council of Europe)
• IMF (International Monetary Fund)
Furthermore, in recent years, the Principality has significantly strengthened the human and material resources of its Financial Intelligence Unit; SICCFIN (Financial Circuits Information and Control Service), which has entered into agreements with 24 other FIUs and is a member of the Egmont Group, which brings together the FIUs of 110 countries.
One of the main directives issued by H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince upon his accession was, in fact, that the financial center must be at the forefront of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
