Macao

New Documents

The Macau Judiciary Police announced the arrest of an individual accused of money laundering and smuggling liquor.

The Financial Intelligence Office of Macao published statistics on the submission of suspicious transaction reports from January 2022 to September 2022, highlighting a slight decline from the same period in 2021.

Enforcement Actions

0 Items Found


Important Facts

  • The U.S. State Department labels Macao as a major money laundering country. As a Special Administrative Region of China, it is not a significant regional financial center. Macao's financial system includes offshore financial businesses and its gaming market is the world's largest by revenue; however, as of January 2021, the offshore regime will be permanently terminated. Primary sources of laundered funds, derived from local and overseas criminal activity, include gaming-related crimes, property offenses, and fraud. Macao is likely both a transit point and an end destination for such funds. The country's gaming market attracts those seeking anonymity or alternatives to China’s currency movement restrictions. Asian organized crime groups, including triads, are active in the gaming services and involved in illegal activities such as drug trafficking. The jurisdiction’s use of junket operators in the transfer and commingling of funds, as well as the absence of currency and exchange controls, present vulnerabilities for money laundering. In July 2020, the jurisdiction's financial intelligence unit released the latest suspicious transaction reports filed in the first half of 2020, which totaled 947.
-Source: 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)

Rankings

FATF i | 2013 Methodology

Technical Effectiveness
Compliant : 22 High : 0
Largely Compliant : 18 Substantial : 6
Partially Compliant : 0 Moderate : 3
Non-Compliant : 0 Low : 2

Macao's technical compliance was re-rated in a Oct. 1, 2019 follow-up report

BASEL i

Rank : 80/110
Score : 5.93/10

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL i

Rank : N/A
Score : N/A

Tax Justice Network i

Rank : 31/133
Score : 65/100