FATF: JURISDICTIONS UNDER INCREASED MONITORING – FEBRUARY 2023

FATF statement

Periodically, FATF publishes a list of countries with identified strategical AML/CFT/CPF shortcomings. Whenever FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means that the jurisdiction has committed itself to mitigate the identified shortcomings within a certain timeframe. Within this timeframe, the jurisdiction will be subject to increased monitoring by the FATF or the FSRBs.

In its public statement of February 2023, the following countries have been added to the list of jurisdictions that are subject to increased monitoring: Nigeria and South Africa. Countries that are no longer under increased monitoring are Cambodia and Morocco.

The following countries had their progress reviewed since October 2022 and their statements were updated accordingly: Albania, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Haiti, Jamaica, Jordan, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, South Sudan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Uganda. The statements issued by FATF in October 2022 for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania have not changed as these countries chose to defer reporting.

Responsibility of reporting entities

Designated financial and non-financial service providers are required to take the former into consideration in their risk analysis and to apply a risk-based approach. Thus, enhanced due diligence measures are not required nor should designated service providers resort to de-risking activities or cut-off customers.

Considering the above and in line with the risk-based approach, it is important to remain alert for red flags. If there is reason to assume that a transaction (i.e. financial transaction/service) is related to AML/CFT/CPF, this should be reported promptly to FIU-Aruba in an unusual transaction report under the subjective indicator 130201 or 130202.

Additionally, FIU-Aruba reiterates the importance of conducting a ‘sanctions-check’ to determine whether transaction(s) must be reported objectively under indicator 130102 (see in particular: “Aanwijzing geconsolideerde lijst VNSC” and “Aanwijzing EU Sancties Bevriezingsmaatregelen”) and to determine whether national freezing measures are applicable.

Click on the following link to find the FATF statement on jurisdictions under increased monitoring:

Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring – 24 February 2023 (fatf-gafi.org)

Should there be any questions, please feel free to contact us.