In his evaluation report corresponding to the review under article IV of the year 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stresses that the Finance system remains resilient and continues to support the economy despite the gradual withdrawal of regulatory easing granted during the pandemic.
It is appreciated that the exit strategy established by the monetary and financial authorities was well designed, based on intensive monitoring and transparency in the evaluation of asset quality.
The report specifies that the authorities have been coordinating the updating of the National Risk Assessment (ENR) with the assistance of the world Bank in view of the next mutual evaluation on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism (PLA/FT), scheduled for 2023.
The IMF highlights the implementation by the Superintendence of Banks of a program to further strengthen its supervisory capacity using a risk-based approach. It stands out that the supervisory body also strengthened its internal sanctions process and increased its supervisory resources to continue improving the effectiveness of the money laundering prevention framework (PLA/FT).
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Referring to the implementation of the third version of the Due Diligence Instructionspublished in March 2022, the IMF team highlights the prohibition for authorized financial entities to interact with unauthorized financial and foreign exchange intermediaries and their owners, thus restricting non-licensed entities from operating in the financial system.
The IMF report also refers to the dissolution of a small multiple bank, whose problems preceded the pandemic COVID-19, highlighting the good handling of the dissolution process and affirming that the existing regulatory framework allowed an expeditious handling of the case, without a visible impact on the market.
