13/05/20

ASIA: Sri Lanka removed from EU money laundering blacklist.

As published on adaderana.lk, Tuesday 12 May, 2020.

The European Commission has de-listed Sri Lanka from its list of High Risk Third Countries with Anti- Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Strategic Deficiencies.

Sri Lanka was listed as a high risk third country by the EU in February 2018, subsequent to Sri Lanka being identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies in its Compliance Document which is more commonly identified as “the Grey List” in October 2017. Upon listing, a time bound Action Plan to address the strategic deficiencies identified was assigned to Sri Lanka.

Since the listing by the FATF, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) together with other stakeholders had taken a series of effective and tangible steps to implement the FATF Action Plan well within the given time frame and accordingly, the FATF delisted Sri Lanka from its Compliance Document (a.k.a. “the Grey List”) at its Plenary held during 13-18 October 2019 in Paris.

“Under the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD), the Commission has a legal obligation to identify high-risk third countries with strategic deficiencies in their regime regarding anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing.”

“Pending the application of the above-mentioned refined methodology, the Commission has today revised its list, taking into account developments at international level since 2018. The new list is now better aligned with the lists published by the FATF,” the commission said in a statement.

Countries which have been added to the updated list published on May 07, 2020 include the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama and Zimbabwe.

Countries which have been delisted: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Guyana, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.