Cote d'Ivoire -- AML/CFT Compliance Regulatory Overview

No Ivorian AML/CFT instrument numbered 'Ordonnance n° 2019-1089 du 18 décembre 2019' or 'Loi n° 2014-393 du 20 juin 2014' exists. Côte d'Ivoire's AML/CFT statutory chain is: Loi n° 2005-554 du 2 décembre 2005 → Loi n° 2016-992 du 14 novembre 2016 relative à la lutte contre le blanchiment des capitaux et le financement du terrorisme → Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023 relative à la lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux, le financement du terrorisme et de la prolifération des armes de destruction massive, which is Côte d'Ivoire's transposition of the UMOA Loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP du 31 mars 2023.

Both instruments are non-existent, so nothing was 'modified and strengthened'. The core AML/CFT text for Côte d'Ivoire is now Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023, which transposes the UMOA Loi uniforme du 31 mars 2023 and replaces Loi n° 2016-992 du 14 novembre 2016. Côte d'Ivoire is a GIABA member, not a FATF member; FATF standards reach it via the UMOA uniform law and GIABA follow-up.

Under Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023, PSAV (prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels) are named expressly: art. 2(2) defines 'actif virtuel', art. 2(51) defines PSAV — covering exchange virtual-asset/fiat, exchange between virtual assets, transfer, 'conservation et/ou administration d'actifs virtuels' and participation in issuer offers — and art. 3 lists PSAV alongside institutions financières and EPNFD (DNFBPs) as assujettis. VASPs are therefore explicitly named, not swept in by analogy.

The 2002 UEMOA anti-money-laundering instrument no longer forms part of the applicable framework. The regional chain now runs: Directive n° 04/2007/CM/UEMOA du 4 juillet 2007 (financement du terrorisme) → Directive n° 02/2015/CM/UEMOA du 2 juillet 2015 → Loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP adoptée par le Conseil des Ministres de l'UMOA le 31 mars 2023, complétée par la Décision n° 021/CM/UMOA du 21 décembre 2023 et la Décision n° 003/CM/UMOA du 28 mars 2024 (seuils) et les Instructions BCEAO n° 001-03-2025 à 003-03-2025 du 18 mars 2025. In Côte d'Ivoire the applicable text is Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023.

Correct that the UEMOA/UMOA layer sets the framework and that member states must transpose it, but the mechanism is misstated: a UEMOA *règlement* is directly applicable and needs no transposition, whereas *directives* and the UMOA *loi uniforme* do. The current instrument is the Loi uniforme LBC/FT/FP adopted by the Conseil des Ministres de l'UMOA on 31 March 2023, which Côte d'Ivoire transposed by Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023 (Senegal: Loi n° 2024-08; Benin: Loi n° 2024-01; Burkina Faso: Loi n° 046-2024/ALT).

The substance is right — crypto-assets are not legal tender in the UEMOA, are not regulated by the BCEAO, and no operational VASP licensing regime exists; and the absence of a bespoke regime does not displace AML/CFT obligations (Ordonnance n° 2023-875, art. 3, makes PSAV assujettis outright). Two corrections: (i) the three communiqué dates (12 December 2013, 5 December 2017, 22 May 2018) could not be verified — the BCEAO's current avis et mises en garde index shows no crypto warnings at those dates; (ii) 'no formal licensing regime' overstates the position — art. 58 of the uniform law as transposed does prohibit carrying on PSAV activity without prior agrément or authorisation, but art. 59 defers all PSAV-specific requirements to a competent authority that no UEMOA state, including Côte d'Ivoire, has designated, so the requirement exists on paper and is inoperative. The BCEAO created its C-CRYPTO drafting committee in May 2026 and held a Dakar conference on 8 May 2026; Governor Kassi Brou (July 2026): 'Ce n'est pas une monnaie. Ce n'est pas réglementé.'

The verification standard is correct and is in force in Côte d'Ivoire: Ordonnance n° 2023-875, art. 17, requires assujettis to identify the client and 'vérifier leur identité au moyen de documents, sources, données ou renseignements indépendants et fiables'. The enumerated data elements (name, date and place of birth, nationality, address, profession, ID number) are not set out in that article; they are fixed by BCEAO Instruction n° 003-03-2025 du 18 mars 2025 relative à l'identification, la vérification de l'identité et la connaissance de la clientèle, whose text was not read.

For Legal Persons/Entities (e.g., businesses): Obtaining and verifying the company's name, legal form, address of registered office, registration number, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and identifying the directors and persons authorized to represent the legal person.

Correct in substance but imprecise on the threshold: Ordonnance n° 2023-875, art. 2(12), defines the bénéficiaire effectif as the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the client, and for companies as a person holding, directly or indirectly, 'plus de vingt-cinq pour cent du capital' — i.e. *more than* 25%, not '25% or more'. Côte d'Ivoire additionally created a beneficial-ownership register by Loi n° 2024-362 du 11 juin 2024, with access rules set by Décret n° 2024-583 du 26 juin 2024.

Purpose and Nature of the Business Relationship: Understanding the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or occasional transaction.

Ongoing Monitoring: Conducting ongoing due diligence on the business relationship and scrutinizing transactions undertaken throughout the course of that relationship to ensure that the transactions are consistent with the obliged entity's knowledge of the customer, their business, and risk profile.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Applying EDD measures in higher-risk situations, including:

Business relationships with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).

Complex, unusual, or large transactions.

Situations where the customer is not physically present for identification purposes (non-face-to-face transactions).

Transactions involving new technologies and products (which could include virtual assets) whose anonymity could favor ML/TF.

Simplified Due Diligence (SDD): Permitted in low-risk situations, as defined by regulation.

Obligation to Report: Obliged entities must report any transaction (or attempted transaction) that they suspect is linked to money laundering or terrorist financing to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

Reports are made to the CENTIF (CENTIF-CI), not to 'CELLIF'. The body's name is the Cellule Nationale de Traitement des Informations Financières de Côte d'Ivoire, acronym CENTIF-CI; 'CELLIF' does not exist in Ivorian or UEMOA law or practice.

Content of Report: The report should include all available information concerning the customer, the transaction, and the reasons for suspicion.

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

All customer identification data (e.g., copies of identification documents).

Account files and business correspondence.

Transaction data in a way that allows for reconstruction of individual transactions (including amounts, currencies, dates, sender/recipient details, and nature of the transaction).

The retention period in Côte d'Ivoire is ten (10) years, not five. Ordonnance n° 2023-875, art. 23, requires assujettis to 'conserve[r] pendant une durée de dix ans, à compter de la clôture de leurs comptes ou de la cessation de leurs relations' the documents relating to client identity and to operations. The ten-year period is not new: Loi n° 2016-992 du 14 novembre 2016, art. 35, already imposed it, and art. 23 of the UMOA Loi uniforme du 31 mars 2023 does the same.

The expanded name is right but the acronym is wrong: the body is the Cellule Nationale de Traitement des Informations Financières de Côte d'Ivoire, acronym CENTIF-CI (not 'CELLIF'), created by décret n° 2006-261 du 9 août 2006.

The described role is accurate — Côte d'Ivoire's FIU receives, analyses and disseminates suspicious transaction reports to the competent authorities — but the acronym is wrong: it is CENTIF-CI, not 'CELLIF'. It was created by décret n° 2006-261 du 9 août 2006 as a service à compétence nationale placed under the tutelle of the Ministre de l'Économie et des Finances, and is an administrative-type FIU answering FATF Recommendation 29.

Website (if available): Accessing a specific official website for CELLIF can be challenging as many FIUs are integrated into a Ministry of Finance. However, information is often found on the Ministry's site or through GIABA:

While a direct, independent website for CELLIF may not be readily available or consistently maintained, information about Cote d'Ivoire's FIU and its contact details are often provided within the reports of international bodies like GIABA or the Egmont Group. For general information on FIUs in West Africa:

Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)

The BCEAO is the regional central bank of the eight UMOA states and licenses/supervises banks, établissements financiers, e-money issuers and payment institutions, so the fiat leg of any virtual-asset business (accounts, payment services, e-money) falls under its framework. But the extension is narrower than claimed: the BCEAO's e-money and payment instruments (Instruction n° 008-05-2015; Instruction n° 001-01-2024) contain no reference to crypto-actifs, and neither the BCEAO nor Côte d'Ivoire has designated the 'autorité compétente' that art. 58-59 of the loi uniforme reserve for prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels. AML/CFT supervision in CI runs through CENTIF-CI and the Commission Nationale des Sanctions (Ordonnance n° 2022-237; Décret n° 2024-58), not the BCEAO.

There is no operational VASP licensing regime in Côte d'Ivoire or UEMOA — but the claim that no requirement exists at all is wrong. Art. 58 of the UMOA loi uniforme of 31 March 2023, transposed in Côte d'Ivoire by Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023, provides: 'Nul ne peut se livrer à l'activité professionnelle de prestataire de services d'actifs virtuels s'il n'a pas obtenu l'agrément ou l'autorisation préalable de l'autorité compétente.' A statutory prior-authorisation requirement therefore exists on paper; art. 59 defers all operational requirements to a 'competent authority' which no UEMOA member state, including Côte d'Ivoire, has yet designated. So there is a prohibition without a licensing counter to apply at, not an absence of regulation.

BCEAO Warning: The BCEAO maintains a cautious stance, considering cryptocurrencies unregulated and risky. This creates a challenging environment for formal VASP operations.

The cited 'Ordonnance n° 2019-1089' is not Côte d'Ivoire's AML/CFT statute and appears nowhere in CENTIF-CI's official register of texts. The instrument in force is Ordonnance n° 2023-875 du 23 novembre 2023 relative à la lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux, le financement du terrorisme et de la prolifération des armes de destruction massive, which transposes the UMOA loi uniforme of 31 March 2023 and supersedes Loi n° 2016-992 du 14 novembre 2016. The substantive point is also understated: PSAV are not entities that 'should consider themselves' obliged — art. 3(c) of the Ordonnance lists 'les prestataires de services d'Actifs virtuels' as assujettis outright, art. 2(51) defines PSAV to include exchange, transfer and conservation of virtual assets, and art. 23 imposes ten-year record retention. Loi n° 2016-992, the predecessor, contains no mention of actifs virtuels at all.

Regulatory Risk: Operating without explicit authorization or a clear regulatory framework from the BCEAO or national authorities exposes VASPs to significant regulatory and legal risks, including potential future prohibitions or unexpected enforcement actions.