News
Documents published by FATF on 25 October 2024
11 Nov 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 25 October 2024:
(1) FATF Statement on High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action
(a) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK”) and Iran- High-risk jurisdictions have significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation. For all countries identified as high-risk, the FATF calls on all members and urges all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence, and, in the most serious cases, countries are called upon to apply counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks emanating from the country. Since February 2020, Iran reported in January and August 2024 with no material changes in the status of its action plan. Given heightened risks of financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the FATF reiterates its call to apply counter-measures 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 limit business relationships and financial transactions with DPRK personsand apply enhanced due diligence to the DPRK and those acting on its behalf or facilitating transactions on its behalf. 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 relationships and transactions with Myanmar.
(2) Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring
- As part of its ongoing review of compliance with the AML/CFT standards, FATF identified 24 jurisdictions (Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Monaco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen) with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.- Senegal is 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 25 October 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.
2. 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.