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FATF UPDATE The Financial Action Task Force (FATF announced at this summer’s Plenary meeting that, due to substantial reforms by the Ukraine and Egypt, it has removed the two countries from its list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCTs). “This is evidence that the NCCT process is working, and countries are taking substantive action to clean up their financial systems,” said FATF President Claes Norgren. “The FATF has therefore decided to remove them from the list of NCCT’s”, said Mr Norgren. “This is good news for Ukraine, Egypt and the international community. In line with past practice, the FATF will continue to monitor closely the ongoing implementation of the anti-money laundering systems in these countries.” The FATF maintains a list for non-cooperative countries and territories which do not meet international standards against money laundering. These countries can be subjected to counter-measures, including heightened scrutiny by banks dealing with any transactions originating from an NCCT-listed country. The list of countries remaining as designated NCCTs is as follows: Cook Islands, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria and Philippines. Accordingly, the FATF called on its members to maintain their advisories requesting that their financial institutions give special attention to businesses and transactions with persons, including companies and financial institutions, in these listed countries or territories. The FATF decided to maintain the current counter-measures against Myanmar and Nauru, citing a lack of sufficient progress to justify their removal at this point. The latest position is at www1.oecd.org/fatf/NCCT_en.htm. Collaboration between FATF and the IMF and World Bank The FATF has been working closely with the IMF and World Bank during a 12-month pilot programme to ensure the consistent application of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing standard world-wide. This has included a pilot programme in which the IMF and World Bank have been using the FATF Recommendations to assess countries’ financial systems. The FATF President issued a letter to the IMF and the World Bank welcoming the successful conclusion of the pilot program, and encouraging the IMF and World Bank to continue their assessments on a comprehensive, uniform and permanent basis, as a regular part of their Financial Sector Assessment Program. Eight special recommendations The FATF’s original forty recommendations have now been augmented by a further eight recommendations primarily concerned with terrorist financing. Details are at www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/SRecTF_en.pdf. The FATF website is at www1.oecd.org/fatf