The Philippines remains on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) gray list after its latest review, with the anti-money laundering body continuing to express concern over the monitoring of casinos and junkets.
The latest FATF plenary was held under the German Presidency of Dr. Marcus Pleyer from June 14th – 17th.
The FATF put the Philippines back on its list of jurisdictions that are subject to increased monitoring in June last year.
The Paris-based organization said that since then the Philippines has taken steps to improve its AML and CFT regimes, but it reiterated that it needs to continue to work to implement its action plan.
In particular, it needs to demonstrate effective risk-based supervision of designated non-banking financial businesses and professions, which includes casinos. It also needs to demonstrate that supervisors are using AML/CFT controls to mitigate risks associated with casino junkets, it said.
Since the prior review, Malta has been taken off the list of countries subject to increased monitoring.
FATF welcomed Malta’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime. Malta has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime to meet the commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in June 2021 related to the detection of inaccurate company ownership information and sanctions on gatekeepers who fail to obtain accurate beneficial ownership information, as well as the pursuit of tax-based money laundering cases utilising financial intelligence.