At its plenary meeting on Friday 27 October, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated its list of high-risk jurisdictions in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT). With the addition of Bulgaria, two EU Member States are now subject to increased monitoring.
Bulgaria joins Croatia and 21 other countries on the list of high-risk jurisdictions: Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Croatia, Gibraltar, Haiti, Jamaica, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen.
The jurisdictions under increased monitoring are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes. In June, the European Commission criticised Bulgaria for incorrectly transposing the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (see EUROPE 13193/22).
However, four countries and jurisdictions - Albania, the Cayman Islands, Jordan and Panama - have been removed from the list and will no longer be subject to the increased monitoring process. These countries and jurisdictions have committed to implementing an action plan to rapidly resolve the strategic shortcomings identified within the agreed timeframe. The FATF congratulated them on their significant progress.
North Korea, Iran and Myanmar still have serious strategic AML/CFT deficiencies, according to the FATF, and are the subject of a call to action to protect the international financial system.
The FATF list is taken into account when drawing up the European list of high-risk third countries. In August, the European Commission added Cameroon and Vietnam to the FATF list (see EUROPE 13237/10). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)