FATF removes Jamaica, Türkiye from watchlist; adds Monaco, Venezuela

FAFT also announced Friday that it added Monaco and Venezuela to its 21-country grey list, with increased monitoring appropriate due to AML/CFT deficiencies that “present a risk to the international financial system.” In all cases, countries on the grey list have “committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes,” the FATF said.

In removing Jamaica and Türkiye, the FATF congratulated them “for their significant progress in addressing the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies previously identified during their mutual evaluations.”

The FATF and two regional AML groups also conducted joint evaluations of India and Kuwait. While neither country are on the grey list, the joint evaluation found some issues with their AML/CFT programs.

India has “reached a high level of technical compliance with the FATF requirements,” but the evaluation noted that “improvements are still needed to strengthen the supervision and implementation of preventive measures in some of the non-financial sectors.” There were also concerns about the delays in corruption prosecutions and issues with terrorism financing within the country’s non-governmental organizations sector.

The evaluation of Kuwait’s AML/CFT program found “adequate legal and supervisory framework” to address financial crime, but “serious shortcomings remain in terms of delivering effective outcomes.”

The list currently includes Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, Monaco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen. Countries on the blacklist include North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar. Following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia was been suspended as a member of the FATF.