Mozambique: Central bank forced to rely on news reports on money-laundering cases

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Mozambique: Central bank forced to rely on news reports on money-laundering cases

2:16 CAT | 16 Oct 2025

File photo: Banco de Moçambique

The Bank of Mozambique highlighted the constraint posed by the absence of a centralised database of individuals and entities convicted of money-laundering-related crimes, acknowledging that it must carry out checks manually, often relying on media reports.

“In terms of independent sources of information, there is no independent central body responsible for maintaining a database with relevant information on individuals and legal entities,” reads a sectoral risk assessment report on money laundering.

Such a database “should include, for example, information on individuals and entities tried and convicted of crimes related to money laundering. At present, this procedure is carried out manually, through news published by the media”.

The central bank also advocates the regular sharing of information between the Bank of Mozambique and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation “with obliged entities, in relation to entities designated on international sanctions lists”.

The report notes that, “although it is centralised in asset declaration processes” at the Attorney General’s Office, there is still no “centralised and updated database on PEPs [Politically Exposed Persons] and other high-risk national clients” in Mozambique.

On 22 October, 2022, Mozambique was placed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on the “grey list” of financial jurisdictions which have so far failed to eliminate deficiencies in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

Meanwhile, the government announced in June that the FATF would meet in Mozambique from 8 to 11 September to decide on the updated international “grey list”, to be published in October.

Mozambique is confident it will be removed from the list, after having implemented a series of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, the national coordinator of actions for Mozambique’s removal from the list, Luís Abel Cezerilo, stated in August.

Source: Lusa