PH Remains in Gray List of FATF

The Philippines remains on the gray list of the international money watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), as it cannot address strategic deficiencies to combat money laundering, proliferation financing, and terrorist financing.

The FATF choose to keep the Philippines and 22 other countries under increased monitoring on the list of jurisdictions.

In June of last year, the Philippines was placed on the gray list and has made a high-level political commitment to work with the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and the FATF to build up the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering/combating of financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.

The FATF has mentioned that the Philippines is working towards developing its AML/CFT regime and showing that proper measures are being executed about the non-profit organizations and imposing supervision for targeted financial sanctions.

Despite this, the FATF has mentioned that the Philippines would still need improvement on the implementation of action plans meant to tackle the strategic deficiencies through exhibiting effective risk-based supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professional (DNFBPs) is occurring and that supervisors are utilizing AML/CFT controls to mitigate risk associated with casino junkets.

The FATF has also recommended that the Philippines streamline and improve law enforcement agencies access to beneficial ownership information and take the necessary steps to guarantee that information is updated and accurate.

Since its inclusion in the gray list last year, the country has been working towards tackling problem areas to meet the FATF’s deadline of January 2023.

Source: Philstar