Cayman Islands, Morocco Placed on Terror-Financing Watch List

Four jurisdictions, including the Cayman Islands and Morocco, will undergo increased monitoring as they face pressure from a global watchdog to address deficiencies in their anti-money-laundering efforts.

The Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based organization that sets anti-money-laundering law standards, on Thursday added Burkina Faso, the Cayman Islands, Morocco and Senegal to its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, joining 15 other countries. The identified deficiencies vary for each jurisdiction, but they include maintaining comprehensive beneficial ownership information and expanding the operations of countries’ financial intelligence units, according to FATF.

For instance, FATF in a report said the Cayman Islands government needs to impose effective administrative penalties and enforcement actions against entities involved in money-laundering violations, as well as implement adequate sanctions in cases where accurate and timely beneficial ownership information isn’t provided.

“The Cayman Islands are a major financial center; we expect from countries who have higher risks, we expect commensurate measures against these risks,” FATF President Marcus Pleyer said during a virtual press conference Thursday.

Being added to the so-called “grey list” means the four countries and territories will work with FATF on plans to address identified deficiencies in their counter-terror-financing regimes within agreed time frames and subject to extra checks, FATF said.

Pakistan, another country on the grey list, has made significant progress in improving its frameworks to counter illicit finance, including demonstrating that its law enforcement agencies were identifying and investigating terrorist finance activities and taking enforcement actions against violations of targeted financial sanctions, FATF said in a report. But Pakistan will remain on the list for increased monitoring; the country still needs to address deficiencies related to terrorist financing, according to FATF.

By Mengqi Sun, The Wall Street Journal, 25 February 2021

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Source: riskscreen.com