News
Documents published by FATF on 23 February 2024
05 Mar 2024
The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), the global standard-setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”), published the following documents on 23 February 2024:
(1) FATF Statement on High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action
(a) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK”) and Iran- Since February 2020, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FATF has paused the review process for DPRK and Iran given that they are already subject to the FATF’s call for countermeasures. Given heightened risks of financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the FATF reiterates its call to apply countermeasures on DPRK and Iran (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/high-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/documents/call-for-action-february-2020.html). DPRK- The FATF calls on its members and urges all jurisdictions, which we hereby do, to advise you to give special attention to business relationships and transactions with the DPRK, including DPRK companies, Financial Institutions and those acting on their behalves. Iran- The FATF calls on its members and urges all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures, which we hereby do, and advise you to apply enhanced due diligence measures, including obtaining information on the reasons for intended transactions, business relationships and transactions with natural and legal persons from Iran; conducting enhanced monitoring of business relationships, by increasing the number and timing of controls applied, and selecting patterns of transactions that need further examination.
(b) Myanmar- The FATF calls on its members and all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence measures proportionate to the risk arising from Myanmar, which we hereby do, and advise you to apply enhanced due diligence measures to business relations and transactions with Myanmar.
(2) Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring
- As part of its ongoing review of compliance with the AML/CFT standards, FATF identified 21 jurisdictions (Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Vietnam and Yemen) with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.- Barbados, Gibraltar, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates are no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process for the significant progress in improving their AML/CFT regime.- The FATF encourages members and all jurisdictions to consider the information presented in the 23 February 2024 issue of “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring”which sets out the high-level political commitment provided by each of the jurisdictions in question to address the identified deficiencies, including to (i) ensure the timely access to adequate, accurate and current basic and beneficial ownership information; (ii) implement an effective targeted financial sanctions regime related to terrorist financing and proliferation financing; (iii) establish procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets; (iv) apply a risk-based approach for monitoring non-profit organisations to prevent abuse for terrorist financing purposes; and (v) improve customer due diligence and suspicious transaction reporting requirements, etc.
As licensed trust or company service providers are required to comply with relevant AML/CFT requirements, I would be grateful if you would duly take note of the concerns and observations made by the FATF in the above documents and help disseminate the above information to your members.