FATF adds Iraq and Bosnia to ‘Grey List’

• The sixth and final Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary meeting under the Mexican presidency of Elisa de Anda Madrazo concluded on June 19, with a comprehensive range of initiatives agreed to bolster the global fight against illicit finance.

• Delegates from across the FATF’s Global Network of more than 200 jurisdictions and observers gathered in Paris to discuss evolving threats to global financial integrity and security.

• The FATF added Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina to its ‘Grey List’ of countries that need increased monitoring in terms of their efforts to tackle money laundering and financial crime.

• The FATF removed Algeria and Namibia from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring following successful on-site visits and updated its statements on jurisdictions under increased monitoring, as well as statements on jurisdictions subject to a call for action.

The FATF has two types of lists:

1) High Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call for Action (Black List)

2) Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring (Grey List).

1) Black List

• High-risk jurisdictions have significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation. 

• This list is referred to as the ‘Black List’.

• Iran, North Korea and Myanmar are in the FATF Black List.

2) Grey List

• Countries that are considered as safe havens for supporting terror funding and money laundering are included in the ‘Grey List’.

• When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to swiftly resolve the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. 

• Inclusion in the Grey List makes it difficult for a country to get financial aid from world bodies such as the IMF. The list makes it difficult to get investors and creditors, adversely impacts exports, output and consumption and also makes it difficult for global banks to do business with a listed country.

• Angola, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Monaco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (UK) and Yemen are on the FATF Grey List.