Money laundering: Real estate being scrutinized
Real estate agents, as is the case for accounting professionals, notaries, lawyers, and casinos, are called upon to play a whistleblower role within the framework of the system for combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
This is in any case what is provided for by law number 12-18 amending and supplementing the Penal Code and law number 43-05. However, the regulation of the profession of real estate agent was not really taken seriously when the association representing this activity filed a draft law with the Ministry of Housing. At the time, the department was managed by Nabil Benabdellah. The draft piece of legislation was then transferred to the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) where the draft legislation has remained blocked for about 8 years. Since then there was radio silence. Real estate intermediation professionals no longer know which door to knock on to restart the legislative process. The context has changed a lot now. Indeed, the regulation of the profession of real estate agent has become an emergency under the fight against money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism. The relevant law was put in place by Morocco under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as part of an international mechanism to which the Kingdom adheres through an action plan. The latest measure undertaken by the Ministry of Finance involves the sending of a compliance questionnaire to certified public accountants and chartered accountants who must send their answers by the end of September (Cf. L’Economiste #6333 of Thursday 25 August 2022). The provision should be extended to securities account holders, lawyers, notaries, and traditional notaries (adouls), casinos, including on the internet and those installed on board ships, gambling establishments, real estate agents, and other stakeholders. However, this last profession remains dominated by the informal sector (“semsars, informal realtors”) and is far from conforming to international standards. These are intermediaries, who most of the time have neither a head office nor a tax identifier, and who are sometimes impossible to identify.
“ The colleagues do not understand why the draft law that we had submitted through our association with the Ministry of Housing did not arouse the interest of the public authorities. We intend to contact the Head of Government to raise awareness about this initiative regarding the urgency of finally establishing a regulatory framework to elevate the profession to international standards”, said Mohamed Lahlou, President of the Regional Union of Real Estate Agents of the Casablanca-Settat region and past-founding president of the Moroccan Association of Realties (AMAI).
Hassan EL ARIF
