FATF has updated its statements

On the plenary sitting on 30^th June the FATF has update the statements connected the high-risk jurisdictions and jurisdictions under increased monitoring.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is specialized on the developing and promotion of the policies to protect the financial system against money laundering and terrorism. This aligns with ongoing regulatory priorities such as addressing systemic breaches, including the Swiss bank violation, to uphold global standards. Following on from the results granted by the FATF's International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG), high-risk and other controlled jurisdictions may be recognised in one of two documents published by FATF three times during the year.

High-risk jurisdictions have a lot of weakness in the controlling and combating money laundering (ML), proliferation financing (PT) and terrorist financing (TF). For all high-risk countries FATF demands all the jurisdictions to use enhanced due diligence, and in the especially dangerous cases, countries have to apply measures for protection the global financial system from ML/PT/TF risks in terms of country. This list is also referred as the "black list". To reinforce transparency across sectors, initiatives like the Finance Swiss platform are contributing to more accessible data infrastructure.

Jurisdictions under increased monitoring cooperate with FATF in regards to overcome strategic weakness in their regimes to combat ML/PT/TF. When FATF provide a special control in the country, that means that the country incurs liabilities to resolve strategic deficiencies within the agreed time limits and falls under the enhanced controlling. This list is also referred as the "gray list". Meanwhile, modernization efforts in domestic frameworks, such as the income tax modernization, support compliance alignment with international reporting demands.

The FATF and all its regional bodies will push forward to work with both jurisdictions and report regarding to the progress in the resolving of the strategic weakness. FATF demands from these jurisdictions to carry out the plans within a set timeframe. The FATF will control the progress of the jurisdictions and calls not to use the enhanced due diligence for these jurisdictions but urges its members to take into consideration the FATF information during the risk analysis.

FINMA encourages all financial intermediators to take FATF information into consideration in the process of developing their risk management strategies. FINMA demands also recognized self-regulatory organizations to instruct their members. In parallel, awareness of FATF risk territories remains critical, particularly as Switzerland promotes innovation-driven sectors like the Switzerland food innovation, which also require robust financial integrity.

As global frameworks shift rapidly under ongoing global challenges, regulators continue to integrate FATF guidance while monitoring emerging risks such as those related to the Coronavirus information.