Cameroon, Croatia, Vietnam placed on FATF’s ‘grey list’

PARIS: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced it had put Cameroon, Croatia and Vietnam on its “grey list” of countries under increased monitoring.

The three nations join 23 others on the list which are “actively working with the FATF to address the strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing”.

Other countries on the grey list include Albania, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The announcement came on the final day of the FATF’s plenary meeting in Paris.

The 39-member body, which is based in Paris, has a grey list of countries requiring closer monitoring and a black list of nations classed high-risk.

No changes were made to the FATF black list, which for the moment includes three countries: Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.

It recommends that countries in this last category should be subject to much closer scrutiny. More than 200 countries and jurisdictions have agreed to implements the FATF’s standards in this area. Its recommendations include actions covering transparency, preventive measures coordination and punitive measures.

The FATF international financial crime watchdog did not put Lebanon on its “grey list” of countries facing special scrutiny after a preliminary mutual assessment had raised concerns it would be.

Lebanon was likely to be placed on the list over unsatisfactory practices to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.

However, the modified list announced did not include Lebanon and officials from the watchdog did not mention the country during a press conference after their statement on the list.

The Middle East and North Africa section of the watchdog scored Lebanon one mark over the threshold to be grey listed during a preliminary evaluation.