Mauritania
Overview
Mauritania’s AML/CFT framework originated with Law No. 2005-048 and was materially modernised through Law No. 2019-017. UMEF’s official legal corpus now records a further 2026 implementing and supervisory layer, including amendments to the 2019 implementing/governance decrees and sector instruments for financial institutions, insurance, lawyers, accountants, precious-metals/stones dealers and virtual-asset restrictions.
CDD, beneficial-owner identification and legal-person transparency controls are mapped from the 2005/2019 statutory layer and MENAFATF/FATF follow-up evidence. Technical-compliance findings are kept separate from the existence of legal duties.
UMEF receives, analyses and disseminates suspicious-transaction information. The current UMEF site provides the institutional and legislative evidence layer for reporting and FIU functions.
Compliance Calendar2
Requirement
Suspicious transaction / activity report
Authority / Report toUnité Mauritanienne d’Enquêtes Financières (UMEF)
Deadline / triggerReport to the competent financial intelligence unit in accordance with the current national framework and applicable sector instructions; No universal numeric filing deadline is verified in mapped sources.
Requirement
- Subject scope
- Reporting entities in Mauritania subject to the current AML/CFT framework.
- Trigger
- A transaction/activity meets the applicable suspicion threshold under the national AML/CFT framework.
Impact
- Consequences of non-compliance
- Failure to report may attract statutory, administrative or supervisory measures under the applicable AML/CFT framework.
- Enforcement authority
- National financial intelligence unit / competent supervisor
- Operational impact
- Maintain immediate internal escalation and bind the entity to the verified current FIU filing instruction before setting a hard external SLA.
Requirement
Risk-based CDD, monitoring, records and internal controls
Authority / Report to—
Deadline / triggerMaintain risk-based CDD/beneficial-owner identification, ongoing monitoring, internal controls and records for the periods required by the current law and sector rules; mapped sources do not generalize an unsupported universal retention period.
Requirement
- Subject scope
- Reporting entities in Mauritania subject to preventive AML/CFT obligations.
- Trigger
- Continuous operation of covered business; customer onboarding, ongoing monitoring and elevated risk indicators trigger the applicable preventive measures.
Impact
- Consequences of non-compliance
- Preventive-control failures may attract supervisory, administrative or statutory measures.
- Enforcement authority
- Competent AML/CFT supervisor / FIU
- Operational impact
- Map the control library to the precise current sector rule and preserve auditable evidence of CDD, monitoring, escalation, training and retention.
Authorities & FIU1
FATF Assessment
Measures how fully the jurisdiction has implemented FATF’s technical requirements. It does not measure practical effectiveness.
Measures whether the AML/CFT system achieves its intended results in practice. Follow-up reports do not normally replace these ratings.
Explore 40 FATF RecommendationsSee every Technical Compliance rating and what it means.+
Explore 11 Immediate OutcomesSee how FATF rates whether the AML/CFT system works in practice.+
Regulatory Timeline46
AML Ballerina’s current-source layer now uses UMEF as the active FIU entity and treats CANIF as the historical predecessor, consistent with Law No. 2019-017 and UMEF’s official institutional history.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Decree No. 115-2026 as amending and supplementing provisions of Decree No. 197-2019 implementing Law No. 2019-017 on AML/CFT.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Decree No. 116-2026 as amending provisions of Decree No. 198-2019 governing the composition, organisation and operation of the national AML/CFT committee and the financial intelligence unit.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Decree No. 117-2026 as amending and supplementing provisions of Decree No. 199-2019 on the composition, organisation and operation of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Circular No. 000001-2026 for dealers in precious metals and precious stones among the supervisory rules issued in 2026.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Circular No. 03/2026 addressing AML, terrorist-financing and proliferation-financing instructions for accounting professionals.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Circular No. 02/2026 as amending provisions of Governor Circular No. 11/2020 concerning the prohibition on dealing in virtual assets.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Order No. 04/2026 as amending provisions of Order No. 07/2019 concerning AML/CFT instructions for insurers, reinsurers, agents and insurance brokers.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Order No. 03/2026 as amending provisions of Order No. 06/2019 on supervisory AML/CFT controls for financial institutions other than insurance companies.
UMEF’s official legal corpus lists Circular No. 100-2026 directed to lawyers among the country’s AML/CFT supervisory instruments.
FATF revised Recommendation 16 to standardise payment information and strengthen fraud/error controls in cross-border payments.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF amended Recommendation 1 and related interpretive material to strengthen proportionality and simplified measures under the risk-based approach.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF revised Recommendations 4, 30, 31 and 38 and related interpretive material to make asset recovery a stronger operational priority, expand tools to trace and confiscate criminal property and improve domestic and international cooperation.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗At its February 2023 Plenary FATF revised Recommendation 25 and its Interpretive Note to strengthen transparency and beneficial-ownership requirements for trusts and similar legal arrangements, complementing the 2022 strengthening of Recommendation 24 for legal persons.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF strengthened Recommendation 24 on beneficial ownership transparency for legal persons.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗FATF amended Recommendations 1 and 2 and their Interpretive Notes so countries and covered private-sector entities must identify, assess and mitigate risks of breaches, non-implementation or evasion of proliferation-related targeted financial sanctions.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗The Basel Committee revised its ML/TF risk-management guidelines to add principles for information exchange and cooperation between prudential and AML/CFT supervisors in authorisation, ongoing supervision and enforcement.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF adopted detailed implementation requirements for virtual assets and VASPs in June 2019, including the application of wire-transfer information requirements commonly described as the Travel Rule. This operationalised the virtual-asset perimeter introduced through the 2018 Recommendation 15 revision.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗Mauritania adopted Law No. 2019-017 as a new national AML/CFT instrument.
Law No. 2019-017 modernised the AML/CFT framework and renamed the predecessor financial-information commission (CANIF) as the Unité Mauritanienne d’Enquêtes Financières (UMEF), the current FIU name.
In October 2018 FATF revised Recommendation 15 and added the definitions of virtual asset and virtual asset service provider, formally bringing virtual-asset activity into the global AML/CFT standards architecture. Detailed implementation requirements followed in 2019.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗Mauritania amended its AML/CFT legislation through Law No. 2016-013.
The Basel Committee issued Sound management of risks related to money laundering and financing of terrorism, superseding its 2001 CDD and 2004 consolidated KYC papers and integrating ML/TF risk management with prudential supervisory expectations.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF adopted a consolidated revised set of 40 Recommendations integrating AML, CFT and proliferation-financing safeguards.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗GIABA’s official 2013 Annual Report expressly records that the Islamic Republic of Mauritania was granted observer status in GIABA in May 2010. This is a dated status-changing transition: the historical member period closes at May 2010 and an observer period begins. No automatic expiry is stated in the reviewed evidence, so the observer period remains open in the event-sourced state model until a contrary transition is evidenced.
Resolution 1737 imposed binding measures concerning Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities, including an asset freeze on designated individuals and entities. Together with the DPRK regime, it forms a foundational UN counter-proliferation targeted-financial-sanctions architecture.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗Following the DPRK nuclear test, Resolution 1718 imposed binding sanctions including an asset freeze on designated persons and entities connected to the nuclear programme. It became a central UN targeted-financial-sanctions pillar for counter-proliferation financing.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗MENAFATF admitted Mauritania as a member during its Second Plenary in September 2005.
Mauritania adopted Law No. 2005-048 on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
FATF added a ninth Special Recommendation addressing cash couriers and cross-border movement of currency.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗Resolution 1540 requires all States to adopt and enforce laws and domestic controls to prevent non-State actors from acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction and related materials. It forms a binding global legal pillar of the proliferation-financing control environment later reflected in FATF CPF standards.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗The UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption on 31 October 2003. UNCAC addresses prevention of money laundering, laundering of corruption proceeds, confiscation and a dedicated asset-recovery framework; the Convention entered into force globally on 14 December 2005.
Current UN depositary relationship to 2003 UN Convention against Corruption. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗FATF comprehensively revised its AML/CFT Recommendations, strengthening preventive measures and extending coverage.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗The Basel Committee issued Customer due diligence for banks, setting minimum supervisory expectations for customer acceptance, identification, ongoing monitoring and risk management. It became an influential global banking KYC/CDD benchmark and was later reflected in FATF standards.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗FATF expanded its standards to terrorist financing through eight Special Recommendations.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗Resolution 1373 requires all States to prevent and suppress terrorist financing, criminalise the provision or collection of funds for terrorist acts, freeze terrorist assets without delay and prohibit making funds or financial services available to terrorists and related entities.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗The Palermo Convention was adopted on 15 November 2000 and broadened the international money-laundering framework beyond drug proceeds through criminalisation and preventive measures tied to transnational organised crime. It entered into force globally on 29 September 2003.
Current UN depositary relationship to 2000 Palermo Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗A contemporaneous U.S. government GIABA record identifies Mauritania within the exhaustive fourteen-country nominal/early membership roster associated with GIABA’s first meetings in Dakar in November 2000. The official ECOWAS 2001 Annual Report independently fixes the ministerial meeting that adopted GIABA’s statutes to 3 November 2000. Read together, the evidence fixes Mauritania’s founding-stage GIABA membership start to November 2000. Month precision is retained because the roster evidence does not establish a jurisdiction-specific signature or attendance day.
The UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism on 9 December 1999, creating the treaty framework for criminalising terrorist financing and international cooperation. It entered into force globally on 10 April 2002.
Current UN depositary relationship to 1999 Terrorist Financing Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗Resolution 1267 imposed an assets freeze and other targeted sanctions in the Taliban context and created the Security Council committee that became the foundation of the UN 1267 sanctions architecture. It is a key global precursor to modern terrorist-financing targeted financial sanctions.
UN Members agree to accept and carry out Security Council decisions. This current Charter relationship is not proof of the jurisdiction’s domestic implementation, nor a claim about its membership status on the historical event date.
UN Charter · Article 25 ↗FATF revised the Forty Recommendations to reflect evolving money-laundering methods and countermeasures.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗Representatives of 13 financial intelligence units met in Brussels on 9 June 1995 and founded what became the Egmont Group. The milestone created the operational global network for FIU-to-FIU cooperation and exchange of financial intelligence.
No Egmont member FIU is recorded in the current profile. The 1995 GLOBAL milestone is therefore context, not a membership claim.
Egmont Group · Member FIUs ↗FATF issued its original Forty Recommendations, establishing the first global AML standard framework.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗The G7 established FATF in 1989 to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. FATF became the central global standard-setting body whose recommendations are implemented through national and regional AML/CFT frameworks.
Current relationship. This is regional assessment network participation, not direct FATF membership. The GLOBAL standard remains separate from evidence of domestic implementation.
FATF Global Network ↗The Vienna Convention was adopted on 20 December 1988 and created the first treaty-level international obligation to criminalise laundering conduct linked to drug-trafficking proceeds, alongside confiscation and international-cooperation measures. It entered into force globally on 11 November 1990.
Current UN depositary relationship to 1988 Vienna Convention. This is not a claim that the jurisdiction was already a Party on the GLOBAL event date; the national accession/ratification date is a separate LOCAL/STATUS fact.
UN Treaty Collection ↗The Basel Committee published a Statement of Principles for banks aimed at reducing the risk that banking institutions would be used by criminals or as channels for money laundering. This helped establish the preventive and supervisory side of AML alongside the emerging criminal-law framework.
A Basel supervisory publication does not become domestic law merely because it is GLOBAL. National adoption, supervisory use or incorporation must be evidenced by a LOCAL milestone or source.
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ↗