“This is a significant success for the FATF and Ukraine in the fight against money laundering,” said FATF president Jochen Sanio. “Close monitoring of implementation issues will be crucial in determining an appropriate time for Ukraine’s removal” from the blacklist.

The FATF has also removed Grenada from the list of non-cooperative countries and territories after it considerably reformed its anti-money laundering system. But it recommended that FATF members impose additional counter-measures against the Philippines unless it enacts legislation to address previously identified deficiencies in it’s anti-money laundering regime by 15 March 2003. The current list of non-cooperative countries and territories is: Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Philippines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Ukraine. The FATF will review the situation of each jurisdiction on the list at its next plenary meeting on 18-20 June 2003. FATF members plan to complete a review of the 40 recommendations against money laundering before that meeting.

The FATF is a 29-member independent international body whose secretariat is housed at the OECD.

For further information about the FATF, its efforts against terrorist financing, the review of the Forty Recommendations and the list of non-cooperative countries and territories, see the FATF website (link below).

©OECD Observer No 236, March 2003