Benin -- AML/CFT Compliance Regulatory Overview

Benin's AML/CFT cornerstone is Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024 relative a la lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux, le financement du terrorisme et de la proliferation des armes de destruction massive, which transposes the UMOA uniform law of 31 March 2023. It replaced Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018, itself amended by Loi n° 2020-25 du 02 septembre 2020. No Beninese AML/CFT statute numbered 'Loi n° 2011-06' could be located, so the premise of the record is itself unsound.

Directive n° 02/2015/CM/UEMOA du 2 juillet 2015 has been superseded, not merely 'complemented', by the UMOA Loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP du 31 mars 2023. That uniform law - not any 2015 decision - is the current regional reference, and Benin transposed it by Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024. UEMOA/UMOA instruments are not directly applicable: each state must transpose.

Decret n° 2025-678 du 29 octobre 2025 exists and does set the conditions for establishing personal identification documents and dispenses six of them (CIP, CIP afro-descendants, CIP etranger, CNI biometrique, passeport ordinaire biometrique, carte de resident) from mandatory legalisation/certification, with validity periods of 5 / 3 / 6 years. However it is a civil-identification instrument (RNPP / etat civil), not an AML/CFT instrument: Benin's AML identification and verification obligations remain those of Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024, notably article 17 (verification from reliable and independent sources).

Article 17 of Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024 requires reporting entities to identify the customer and to verify identity by means of documents, data or information from reliable and INDEPENDENT sources. Customer self-certification does not satisfy verification. The risk-based approach modulates the extent of measures, not the requirement of an independent source. The only material carve-out identified by GIABA is article 86 (certain online payment transactions where the account is held in Benin, another WAEMU state, or an equivalent third country).

Identification of legal-entity customers and of their beneficial owners is required under Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024. The statement that beneficial ownership is not obtainable through ordinary company searches is now out of date: Benin established a beneficial ownership registry by Decret n° 2024-917 du 24 avril 2024.

Beneficial Ownership: Identify and take reasonable measures to verify the identity of the beneficial owner(s) of the customer.

Purpose and Intended Nature of Business: Understand the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship.

Ongoing Monitoring: Conduct ongoing due diligence on the business relationship and scrutinize transactions to ensure they are consistent with the VASP's knowledge of the customer, their business, and risk profile.

Risk-Based Approach: Apply a risk-based approach, meaning enhanced due diligence (EDD) for higher-risk situations (e.g., customers from high-risk jurisdictions, politically exposed persons - PEPs, complex transactions) and simplified due diligence (SDD) for lower-risk situations.

No travel rule applies to virtual asset transfers in Benin. The originator/beneficiary information rules of the UMOA uniform law (arts. 39-47), carried into Loi n° 2024-01, are drafted for 'institutions financieres', which the law defines separately from prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels. GIABA's May 2025 follow-up report rates Benin Non-Compliant on Recommendation 15 ('no legal instrument has been adopted by Benin designed to regulate VA and VASP activities') and Partially Compliant on Recommendation 16 with no virtual-asset coverage at all.

Article 60 al. 1 of Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024 requires reporting entities (assujettis) to report immediately to CENTIF sums, transactions or attempted transactions suspected of being proceeds of money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing or a predicate offence. GIABA rates Benin Compliant on R.20. However it is not established that PSAV/VASPs are operative reporting entities in Benin: GIABA rates R.15 Non-Compliant and records that no legal instrument regulating VA/VASP activity has been adopted.

No Tipping-Off: VASPs and their employees are prohibited from disclosing to the customer or third parties that an STR is being or has been filed.

The retention period in Benin is TEN (10) years, not five. Article 23 of Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024 requires reporting entities to keep, for ten years from the closure of accounts or the termination of the relationship, documents on customer identity, customer knowledge and risk profile, due diligence analyses and transactions. This mirrors art. 23 of the UMOA uniform law of 31 March 2023 ('dix ans, a compter de la cloture de leurs comptes').

Type of Records: This includes all customer identification data (e.g., copies of identification documents), account files, business correspondence, and transaction data (e.g., amounts, dates, types of transactions, involved parties).

Availability: Records must be sufficient to permit the reconstruction of individual transactions and be made available to competent authorities upon request.

Benin’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is the Cellule Nationale de Traitement des Informations Financières (CENTIF). CENTIF is an administrative financial intelligence unit under the Minister of Finance, with financial and decision-making autonomy, responsible for receiving, analyzing, enriching and transmitting suspicious transaction reports and other relevant financial information to competent authorities for the purposes of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and for coordinating and supporting national AML/CFT policy and strategy.

Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO): While the BCEAO is the central bank for UEMOA member states and regulates traditional financial institutions, it has issued warnings and statements regarding cryptocurrencies. It would likely be involved in any future licensing or specific regulatory framework for VASPs in the region.

Correct in substance: prudential regulation and supervision of Beninese financial institutions rests with regional bodies - BCEAO and the Commission Bancaire de l'UMOA (banks, e-money, payment institutions), AMF-UMOA (ex-CREPMF) for securities, CIMA for insurance - while the Ministere de l'Economie et des Finances holds national policy and coordination roles, houses CENTIF and supervises parts of the DNFBP sector. GIABA's May 2025 report nonetheless records that several DNFBP sectors in Benin still have no designated AML/CFT supervisor.

Direct link to the legislative text in English is often hard to find publicly for Beninese national laws. It's usually available via official government gazettes or legal databases in French.

The date is right - Directive n° 02/2015/CM/UEMOA relative a la lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux et le financement du terrorisme dans les Etats membres de l'UEMOA was adopted on 2 July 2015 (the record's own id slug, '29 September 2015', is wrong). But it is no longer current: it has been superseded by the UMOA Loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP du 31 mars 2023, transposed in Benin by Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024. It should be described as the former, not a live, regional reference.

Article 147 of the Constitution of 11 December 1990 does provide that 'les traites ou accords regulierement ratifies ont, des leur publication, une autorite superieure a celle des lois'. But that rule governs ratified treaties, not derived UEMOA/UMOA secondary legislation. A UEMOA directive is by definition binding as to result and requires national transposition; the UMOA uniform law is a model text that each member state must enact. Benin in fact transposed - Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018, then Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 fevrier 2024 - which would have been unnecessary if the record's inference were correct.

Website: While a direct, frequently updated public website with specific legal texts in English for CENAREF can be elusive, their contact information and general mission are usually available through government portals. An official presence often exists within the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

A more reliable reference is often through GIABA's documentation.

GIABA provides reports and information on AML/CFT frameworks for its member states, including Benin.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF):

Relevant documents include "Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers."

While not the direct regulator for VASPs, it's a key financial authority in the region.

Consult local legal counsel specializing in financial technology and AML/CFT to ensure full compliance with the most current interpretation and application of laws.

There is no body called 'CENAREF' in Benin — CENAREF is the FIU of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Benin's financial intelligence unit is the CENTIF-Bénin (Cellule Nationale de Traitement des Informations Financières), created by décret n° 2006-752 du 31 décembre 2006. No public sanction against a virtual-asset business exists in Benin: the GIABA/FATF follow-up report of May 2025 rates Benin Non-Compliant on FATF Recommendation 15 and records that 'no legal instrument has been adopted by Benin designed to regulate VA and VASP activities', so no supervisory or enforcement regime exists to sanction under. Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024 art. 58 does state that no one may professionally act as a PSAV without the agrément or prior authorisation of the competent authority, but Benin has not designated that competent authority, so the requirement is not operational.

Monitor official announcements from the Beninese government, CENAREF, and BCEAO for any new legislation or directives regarding virtual assets.

Benin, through its GIABA/FATF-aligned AML/CFT framework, is expected to implement current FATF standards, but the Travel Rule is not automatically or implicitly adopted in Benin merely by GIABA membership; any Travel Rule obligations depend on Benin’s specific domestic implementation and sectoral rules.

Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018 (as amended by Loi n° 2020-25 du 2 septembre 2020) was Benin's AML/CFT law, but it is no longer 'currently referenced'. It has been superseded by Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024 relative à la lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux, le financement du terrorisme et de la prolifération des armes de destruction massive en République du Bénin — Benin's transposition of the UMOA loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP du 31 mars 2023, adopted by the Assemblée nationale on 12 January 2024 and promulgated 20 February 2024. It is a 207-article text that, unlike the 2018 law, expressly covers actifs virtuels and prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels.

sgg.gouv.bj does host a page for Loi n° 2017-15 du 10 août 2017, but that law is 'modifiant et complétant la loi n° 2013-01 du 14 août 2013 portant code foncier et domanial en République du Bénin' — a land-tenure statute with nothing to do with money laundering. Benin's AML/CFT instrument on the same portal is Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024 (sgg.gouv.bj/doc/loi-2024-01/), preceded by Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018 as amended by Loi n° 2020-25 du 2 septembre 2020. The full text of Loi n° 2024-01 is also published by the Assemblée nationale.

Loi n° 2017-15 is dated 10 août 2017, not 19 June 2017, and is the amendment to Benin's code foncier et domanial, not an AML/CFT law. Benin's AML/CFT statute in force is Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024 (promulgated 20 February 2024, adopted 12 January 2024), which replaced Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018. The surrounding proposition — that no Travel Rule effective date exists for Benin — is correct: Loi n° 2024-01 makes PSAV assujettis (art. 3) and requires prior agrément/autorisation (art. 58), but no competent authority has been designated and no VA transfer information obligation has been brought into force; GIABA's May 2025 follow-up report rates Benin NC on R.15.

FATF Recommendation 16 (for wire transfers, which the Travel Rule mirrors for VA transfers) specifies that financial institutions (and by extension, VASPs) should obtain and transmit required originator and beneficiary information for transactions equal to or above USD/EUR 1,000.

In the absence of specific domestic guidance for Benin's VASP Travel Rule, the expectation is that the FATF standard of USD/EUR 1,000 (or equivalent in local currency) would apply to inter-VASP virtual asset transfers. Lower thresholds may apply for suspicious transaction reporting.

The FATF defines VASPs broadly to include any natural or legal person who, as a business, conducts one or more of the following activities or operations for or on behalf of another natural or legal person:

Exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies.

Exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets.

Safekeeping and/or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets.

Participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer's offer and/or sale of a virtual asset.

Benin's AML/CFT law is not 'Law N°2017-15' (that is the 10 August 2017 amendment to the code foncier et domanial). Under the law actually in force, Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024, prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels are not covered by mere interpretation — they are defined at art. 2(44) and expressly listed as assujettis at art. 3, alongside institutions financières and EPNFD. The claim's premise that VASPs are captured only implicitly, 'even if not explicitly named', is therefore obsolete as well as attached to the wrong statute.

GIABA Guidance: GIABA actively encourages its member states to regulate and supervise VASPs for AML/CFT purposes. Their mutual evaluation reports and guidance documents clarify these expectations.

Reference: GIABA Official Website – Look for publications, mutual evaluation reports for Benin or general guidance on virtual assets.

VASPs operating in Benin would generally be expected to collect the required originator and beneficiary information (name, address, account number/VA wallet address, transaction hash, etc.) for transfers exceeding the threshold, in line with the FATF Travel Rule.

Transmit this information to the beneficiary VASP during or before the transaction.

Be able to make this information available to competent authorities (e.g., Benin's Financial Intelligence Unit – Cellule Nationale de Traitement des Informations Financières du Bénin - CENTIF-Bénin) upon request.

Common industry solutions (e.g., TRISA, Shyft Network, Sygna, Travel Rule Protocol) are typically used for this purpose, but no specific protocol is mandated by Benin.

No 'Loi n° 2017-15 du 19 juin 2017' exists; Loi n° 2017-15 is dated 10 août 2017 and amends the code foncier et domanial. Sanctions for AML/CFT non-compliance in Benin are set out in Loi n° 2024-01 du 20 février 2024, the transposition of the UMOA loi uniforme du 31 mars 2023, whose sanctions title follows the uniform law (administrative sanctions imposed by the autorité de contrôle, not by the CENTIF, plus criminal penalties). The predecessor was Loi n° 2018-17 du 25 juillet 2018 as amended by Loi n° 2020-25 du 2 septembre 2020.

Administrative Sanctions: Fines, warnings, temporary suspension, or permanent revocation of operating licenses (if applicable).

Criminal Penalties: Imprisonment and substantial fines for individuals found responsible for money laundering or terrorist financing, or for wilfully failing to comply with reporting obligations.

Specific penalty amounts would depend on the severity and nature of the non-compliance (e.g., failure to report suspicious transactions, failure to implement due diligence, or actual involvement in illicit activities).