Philippines stays on FATF blacklist despite progress

Philippines stays on FATF blacklist despite progress

Despite progress in legislation, the Philippines has remained on an international blacklist of countries and territories seen as conducive to money-laundering, the central bank said in Manila on Monday.

It said the Philippines remained on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCTs) in the latest FATF advisory for June.

The advisory delisted Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from the NCCT group, leaving behind the Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ukraine.

The central bank released a text of the FATF report that cited progress made by the Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Nigeria, the Philippines, Ukraine and Nauru in addressing deficiencies and which called on them to continue this work.

"The FATF notes with particular satisfaction that Egypt, Guatemala, and the Philippines have enacted most, if not all legislation needed to remedy the deficiencies previously identified," it said.

"On the basis of this progress, the FATF will invite those countries to submit implementation plans to enable the FATF to evaluate actual implementation of the legislative changes in each jurisdiction," it said.

"Until the deficiencies have been fully addressed and the necessary reforms have been sufficiently implemented, it believes that scrutiny of transactions with these jurisdictions, as well as those with Indonesia and Myanmar, continues to be necessary," it said. -- AFP