Macau is set to sign an agreement with São Tomé and Príncipe’s Financial Intelligence Unit to exchange financial information to promote the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, according to a Lusa report carried by AMAN. The protocol also covers associated predicate offences and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The memorandum of understanding is described in an executive order published in Macau’s Official Gazette. Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai signed the order on 17 February 2025, and the order also allows Secretary for Security Chan Tsz King to delegate the signing to Leong Man Cheong, the commander-general of the Unitary Police Service.
Macau Business reported that the GIF has signed information-exchange agreements with 33 countries and territories. Those include Portugal in 2008, Timor-Leste in 2018, Brazil and Cabo Verde in 2019, and Angola in May 2025.
A U.S. State Department annual report in March 2022 highlighted Macau as a key location for money laundering activities. At the same time, the GIF says Macau became in 2019 the only member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering to comply with all 40 international standards on preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Casino reporting has also risen. In the first half of the year, the number of suspicious transactions recorded in Macau’s casinos rose 8.7% from the same period in 2025, and the city’s six concessionaires filed 2,018 reports of transactions suspected of money laundering or terrorist financing between January and June. Separately, in late May the regional government said the DSPDP would sign cooperation agreements with counterparts in São Tomé and Príncipe and Cabo Verde, and two weeks later the bureau said those arrangements would strengthen cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries on data security and personal privacy protection.
