The Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) said the six casino operators in the Chinese region submitted a total of 3,603 reports of transactions suspected of money laundering or terrorist financing.
GIF attributed the decline mainly to “a decrease in the number of suspicious transaction reports submitted by the gaming sector”, which accounted for the overall fall of 6.1 per cent.
Last year, the office received 4,925 reports, of which 73.1 per cent came from casino concessionaires. Banks and insurance companies accounted for 20.5 per cent, while other institutions and entities made up the remaining 6.4 per cent.
The sectors concerned, including pawnshops, jewellery stores, real estate agencies and auction houses, are required to report to the authorities any transaction equal to or above 500,000 MOP.
In 2024, GIF received 5,245 reports, the majority of them from the territory’s casinos. A total of 3,837 reports came from the gaming sector, up 11.8 per cent from the previous year and marking a new record.
According to GIF’s annual report, Macau was the only member of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering to comply with “all 40 international standards” on the prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
EPA/YM YIK
The office has signed information-exchange agreements with 33 countries and territories, including Portugal’s Judicial Police Financial Intelligence Unit in 2008, the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Timor-Leste in 2018, and, in 2019, Brazil’s Council for the Control of Financial Activities and Cabo Verde’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
In July, GIF said it had completed the procedures to also sign an information-exchange agreement with Angola aimed at preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The office said the agreement was discussed at a meeting with representatives of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Republic of Angola, held on the sidelines of the Egmont Group meeting between 6 and 11 July in Luxembourg.
The Egmont Group is an international organisation that combats money laundering and brings together 181 financial intelligence units from around the world.
