Myanmar continues to be in FATF Black List; UAE, Turkiye in Grey List

Myanmar along with Iran and North Korea continue to be in the 'Black List' of the FATF with the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering on Friday terming the three countries as "high-risk jurisdictions".

In a statement, issued after the second plenary of the FATF in Paris under the presidency of T Raja Kumar of Singapore, the Financial Action Task Force also said the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkiye, Jordan, South Africa and 20 other nations will be in its 'Grey List' and they will be under increased monitoring.

Pakistan was removed from the 'Grey List' in October last year.

According to the FATF, those countries that are termed as "high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action" are known as "Black List" countries, and those that are under "increased monitoring" are "Grey List" countries.

For countries that are in the "Black" and the "Grey" lists, no financial aid is given to them by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (EU).

They also face a number of international economic and financial restrictions and sanctions.

On Myanmar, the FATF said the country should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address deficiencies by demonstrating an improved understanding of money laundering risks in key areas, demonstrating on-site and off-site inspections are risk-based, and 'Hundi' operators are registered and supervised.

"The FATF urges Myanmar to work to fully address its anti-money laundering deficiencies and Myanmar will remain on the list of countries subject to a call for action until its full action plan is completed," it said.

For the UAE, the FATF said since February last year, when the country made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regime, it demonstrated significant progress, including by demonstrating a sustained increase in outbound mutual legal assistance requests to help facilitate the investigation of terror financing and money laundering predicates.

The UAE should continue to work to implement its FATF action plan by enhancing and maintaining a shared understanding of the money laundering and terror financing risks between the different designated non-financial businesses and professions sectors and institutions, ensuring a more granular understanding of the risk of abuse of legal persons, and where applicable, legal arrangements, for money laundering and terror financing, it said.

On Turkiye, the FATF said since October 2021, when the nation made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime, it has taken further steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by issuing regulations regarding politically exposed persons and guidance to the private sector on detecting terrorist financing, as well as increasing the FIU's proactive dissemination of financial intelligence.

Turkiye should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by increasing on-site inspections by supervisors across all sectors, commensurate with risk, enhancing the use of financial intelligence to support money laundering investigations, it said.

The FATF continues to monitor that Turkiye's oversight of non-profit organisations is in line with the risk-based approach as set out in the FATF standards, the statement said.

On Jordan, the FATF said, the country should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by completing and disseminating the money laundering and terror financing risk assessments of legal persons and virtual assets, applying effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions for noncompliance.

South Africa will work to implement its FATF action plan by demonstrating a sustained increase in outbound mutual legal assistance requests that help facilitate money laundering and terror financing investigations and confiscations of different types of assets in line with its risk profile, it said.