Sri Lanka removed from FATF’s ‘Grey List’

• FATF says SL has made significant progress addressing strategic AML/CFT deficiencies 
• SL was listed as jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies in Oct. 2017
• Along with SL, Ethiopia and Tunisia were also removed from FATF ‘Grey List’

Sri Lanka has been removed from Paris-based Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘Grey List’ owing to the progress made by the island nation strengthening its anti-money laundering/combating financing for terrorism regime.

The FATF, whose five-day plenary concluded in Paris last Friday, said Sri Lanka made significant progress in addressing the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies identified earlier, and said the country is no longer subject to FATF’s monitoring process.

“The FATF welcomes Sri Lanka’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime and notes that Sri Lanka has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies which FATF identified in November 2017. 

Sri Lanka is therefore no longer subject to FATF’s monitoring process under its ongoing global AML/CFT compliance process. Sri Lanka will continue to work with APG to improve further its AML/CFT regime,” FATF said in a statement. 

In October 2016, the FATF announced that Sri Lanka will be subjected to a review of the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of the terror financing watchdog to assess the progress of AML/CFT effectiveness in the country.

The FATF indicated Sri Lanka had not made sufficient progress in four parameters—international cooperation, supervision, legal persons and arrangements and targeted financial sanctions on proliferations.

Subsequent to that its meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October 2017, the FATF listed Sri Lanka as a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies which is more commonly known as ‘Grey List’ and gave a time-bound action plan to the country to address the deficiencies.

Since Sri Lanka’s ‘Grey List’ entry, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Central Bank had worked tirelessly to implement the FATF action plan and the progress was reported to the FATF regularly. 

FIU was seen entering a number of agreements with various State institutions to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, and the latest being  with the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) of Sri Lanka.

Along with Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Tunisia were also removed from the FATF ‘Grey List’.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to uphold the integrity of the international financial system.