Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has retained the Philippines on its gray list for the second straight year due to the country’s failure to adequately address the gaps in its regime to counter money laundering as well as terrorist and proliferation financing.
FATF president T. Raja Kumar of Singapore said the Philippines remains on the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring after missing the January 2023 deadline as it has yet to address eight out of the 18 deficiencies in its anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls.
“The Philippines entered the gray list in June 2021 but its action plan actually expired in January this year and eight of 18 action items remain outstanding. So this is not a small number,” Kumar said in response to a query from The STAR.
Kumar said the Philippines made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime after it was reincluded in the gray list in June 2021.
“The FATF urges the Philippines to swiftly implement its action plan to address the strategic deficiencies as soon as possible as all deadlines expired in January 2023,” the global dirty money watchdog said.
Although significant progress has been made over the two-year period, Kumar noted there are still deficiencies in the country’s AML/CFT controls that need to be addressed immediately.
Source : Philstar
