The European Commission has followed the lead of global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by removing the Philippines from its list of high-risk jurisdictions.
The FATF announced in February that it had removed the Philippines from its “grey list” after making positive progress in addressing the strategic anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorism financing (CTF) and counter-proliferation financing (CPF) deficiencies previously identified during their mutual evaluations.
On Tuesday, the European Commission revealed that the Philippines, along with Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Senegal, Türkiye, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates, had been removed from its list of high-risk jurisdictions in their AML/CTF regimes.
The removals, it explained, take into account the work of the FATF and in particular its list of “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring”.
“As a founding member of FATF, the Commission is closely involved in monitoring the progress of the listed jurisdictions, helping them to fully implement their respective action plans agreed with FAFT,” it said. “Alignment with FATF is important for upholding the EU´s commitment to promoting and implementing global standards.”
The European Commission added that, “These countries have strengthened the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regimes and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in their action plans on the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF.”
Added to the Commission’s list of high-risk jurisdictions are Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal and Venezuela.
Among the key areas needing to be addressed by Laos are “improving risk-based supervision of casinos, banks and reporting entities in Special Economic Zones, including fit and proper checks”, while Nepal has been tasked with “improving risk-based supervision of commercial banks, higher risk cooperatives, casinos, dealers in precious metals and stones, and the real estate sector.”
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