CMB MONACO

Our values

The creation of a true long-term partnership with its clients, the rapidity of the decision-making process and the broad range of services offered constitute the distinctive features of CMB’s culture: a culture based on a “confiance active”.

Ethics - Confidentiality

At CMB, we strictly comply with the rules of Ethics and Confidentiality on which our activity is based. We are members of the Monegasque Association of Financial Activities (AMAF) which is the professional body representing certified institutions exercising a banking or financial activity in the Principality of Monaco.

With a total of 70 members, banks, financial corporations and portfolio management companies, the AMAF federates all the institutions of this financial center, maintains a permanent dialogue with labor and management as well as with the main economic players of the Principality, and is the ideal contact for the Monegasque Authorities for all matters related to the profession.

The Monegasque Association of Financial Activities (AMAF) sets the fundamental rules governing the protection of information related to clients of banking institutions in the Principality of Monaco:

• Professional secrecy
• Confidentiality of information
• Confidentiality of computer data
• Banking ethics
• Combating «dirty money » laundering

Those rules are for our clients a guarantee of reliability and high security.
Pursuant to the French-Monegasque Convention on exchange control of April 14, 1945, the legislation currently enforced in France on credit institutions also applies in the Principality of Monaco. Monaco banks must comply with the same operational and control rules as French banks, even though control bodies act according to precise rules specifically designed to protect total confidentiality for operations carried out by institutions belonging to the Monegasque financial center.  This convention binds the Principality only with France and French taxpaying residents.

The fundamental rules of protection of information related to clients of banking institutions in the Principality are the following:

• Professional secrecy. Article 57 of the French Banking Act, the enforcement of which takes into account the specific provisions of Monegasque Criminal Law and Monegasque Company Law, imposes on all the banking staff and on all professions hereby regulated the respect of professional secrecy under penalty of the enforcement of criminal sanctions (art. 308 of the Monegasque Criminal Code).

The purpose of professional secrecy in the banking sector is to ensure a smooth running of this sector which is based on clients' trust, and mainly responds to the need for protection of their interests. 

Credit institutions are indeed in a position, when dealing with depositors and borrowers, of collecting information of various kinds on their wealth position, business and private life.

Thus, secrecy covers information related to the operations, in particular, asset management operations carried out by clients of banks, and to the existence, running and balance of bank accounts. Portfolio management companies are subject, concerning their clients, to the same rules as banks regarding professional secrecy.

As in all countries with an organized financial system, professional secrecy is not opposable against the Monitoring Bodies of the Monegasque banking system, themselves being subject to professional secrecy, nor against Monegasque judicial authorities, acting in the course of criminal proceedings.

Other than that, professional secrecy can only be waived in case of persons resident in France for tax purposes pursuant to the French-Monegasque tax convention of 1963.

• Confidentiality of information. Information concerning natural persons or legal entities which are not taxable on the French territory benefit from the greatest protection. French tax residents however come under the provisions of the French-Monegasque Tax Convention.
  
  
• Confidentiality of computer data. The main banks of the Principality of Monaco are equipped with the necessary means guaranteeing independence and security of data processing systems. The AMAF, incidentally, insists that its members not having adopted this system yet do take all the necessary measures to that effect. We can guarantee that, in CMB, all data concerning our clients (back office included) are stored and processed by computer on the territory of the Principality of Monaco.
  
  
• Banking ethics.  The AMAF defined a Banking Code of Ethics containing the rules of minimum conservatism that the various institutions in the Principality of Monaco must implement.
  
  
• « Dirty money » laundering. The Monegasque State, signatory country of the Vienna   Convention of December 19, 1988, on various occasions, expressed its commitment to participate in the fight against crime and “dirty money” laundering and, through this, to reinforce the operations orthodoxy in the financial center of the Principality of Monaco.

To this effect, the Monegasque authorities enacted specific laws (Act n°1157 of 23.12.92 and Act n°1162 of 7.7.1993 modified by Act n°1253 of 12.7.2002) as well as Ministerial Decree n°2003-503 of 29.9.2003, and they created a dedicated service – service of information and control of financial channels (SICCFIN) – bound by top professional secrecy and contributing to the protection of transparency and legality of operations taking place in the Principality of Monaco.

As far as the AMAF is concerned, they initially published in 2000, then up-dated in November 2003, a Manual of professional recommendations for use of its Members, with a high level of requirements totally comparable with current practices in most major international financial centers. This document sets out the obligations and standards of Monegasque financial bodies for client identification and knowledge, as well as for capital flows.