GGRAsia – Cambodia off FATF grey list for AML, Philippines remains

Cambodia off FATF grey list for AML, Philippines remains

Feb 27, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino jurisdiction Cambodia has been taken off the so-called ‘grey list’ of the anti-money laundering (AML) watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), according to a Friday announcement.

The body said Cambodia was one of two jurisdictions “no longer under increased monitoring” regarding its approach to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, following an updated review.

But the Philippines – another regional casino jurisdiction – remains on the FATF grey list. The body said while the Philippines had “continued progress across its action plan,” all current deadlines on progress had “now expired and work remains”.

Such required work included “demonstrating that supervisors are using anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism controls to mitigate risks associated with casino junkets”.

In January, the governor of the Philippine central bank was quoted saying his country had been given a year extension – until January 2024 – to meet the financial standards needed to get off the FATF risk list.

Jurisdictions on the FATF grey list can “experience a disruption in capital flows”, according to a May 2021 research paper by the International Monetary Fund.

The FATF stated in its Friday update – following a three-day plenary meeting – that Cambodia had “addressed its technical deficiencies to meet the commitments of its action plan on strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in February 2019 and 2021 respectively”.

Cambodia would “continue to work” with a “FATF-style regional body” of which it was a member, in order to “further strengthen” its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes, added the announcement.

A senior Cambodian government official had been quoted in November as saying he hoped his nation would have done enough to come off the ‘grey’ designation, once the watchdog had completed a scheduled visit there early this year.