On Friday 24 October, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed four countries from its ‘grey’ list of countries subject to increased monitoring for anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing (AML/CFT). They are Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa.
The FATF found that these countries have taken steps to clean up their economies and to close loopholes that criminals seek to exploit. South Africa has improved its tools for detecting money laundering and terrorist financing, while Nigeria has strengthened its inter-agency coordination. For its part, Mozambique has improved financial intelligence sharing. Finally, Burkina Faso has enhanced financial oversight of financial institutions and auditors.
“These transformations will help better protect communities harmed by crime and corruption: those living in fear of terror attacks; families with life-savings drained by fraud and cyber-crime”, stressed President of the FATF Elisa de Anda Madrazo.
Some twenty jurisdictions remain on the list, including one EU Member State: Algeria, Angola, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, British Virgin Islands and Yemen.
These changes will be reflected in the next update of the EU list of high-risk AML/CFT jurisdictions. The latest update was in July (see EUROPE 13677/9). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)