Stringent Inspections Expose Regulatory Failures in Currency Exchange Sector
In a concerted effort to combat money laundering and illegal financial practices, thorough inspections have been conducted across major Moroccan cities including Marrakech, Casablanca, Tangier, and Agadir. These inspections have unveiled significant regulatory breaches within several currency exchange establishments. The findings indicate alarming practices such as anonymous transactions, intentional disruptions in tracking platforms, and suspicions of engaging in parallel illegal activities. The regulatory authorities are now preparing to impose strict penalties on the implicated agencies. This summary is derived from the daily publication Assabah.
The Office des Changes has undertaken a meticulous review of the records belonging to firms specializing in currency transfer and exchange, aimed at ensuring compliance with existing preventive measures in the sector. According to Assabah, the regulatory body has gathered evidence of operational discrepancies across various currency exchange offices, prompting the central administration to deploy inspection teams to Marrakech to audit the documents of three manual exchange establishments. This initiative is expected to be followed by additional inspections in Casablanca, Agadir, and Tangier.
Notably, the investigations have uncovered serious violations linked to the owner of a currency exchange company in Marrakech, who allegedly conducted exchange operations without adhering to the requisite vigilance measures mandated by anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations. These violations particularly highlight non-compliance with technical requirements related to the mandatory use of the Office des Changes' information exchange platform, designed to enable real-time transaction monitoring by regulators.
Inspectors have also noted deliberate interruptions in this continuous oversight, which hindered the systematic verification of the identities of individuals conducting currency exchange operations to and from dirhams. This situation represents a blatant violation of sector-specific regulations. Furthermore, the audited establishment's owner was unable to provide the regulators with the identities of the principals for several transactions, indicating that these operations were conducted outside legal frameworks.
Reports also emphasize the existence of networks involved in speculative currency trading against dirhams, utilizing certain exchange offices to transfer substantial funds. In cases where the provided data was found to be fictitious, these practices should have been reported as suspicious to the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit.
The Office des Changes has already revoked the licenses of some companies that have committed similar infractions, and it is highly likely that regulatory authorities will take stringent disciplinary action against the businesses involved in these new violations, potentially leading to permanent license revocations. Ongoing investigations are focusing on verifying data received by regulators from the Office des Changes, which indicates that some of these companies in Tangier and Casablanca may be engaging in parallel activities outside their professional scope, a practice that is strictly prohibited under current legislation.
As reported by fr.le360.ma.
