Nauru Removed From Money Laundering Blacklist

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

19 October 2005

Over 400 delegates from 32 jurisdictions and 16 international organisations attended the Financial Action Task Force's Plenary meeting held in Paris on 12-14 October.

At the meeting, the FATF removed Nauru from its list of non-cooperative countries and territories (NCCTs) after the jurisdiction abolished its 400 shell banks, thus removing the major money laundering risk.

Although Myanmar and Nigeria remain on the list of NCCTs, the FATF recognised that they have adopted many necessary legal reforms and encouraged further implementation. In the meantime, the FATF continues to call on financial institutions to scrutinise transactions with persons, businesses, or banks in these countries, as per Recommendation 21.

It was also announced at the weekend that the Bahamas has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s monitoring list of countries with weak anti-money laundering or terrorist financing laws.

Attorney General, Alfred Sears said that the process of complying with FATF demands had been lengthy and costly, but had led to mainly positive changes for the islands' financial industry.

Minister Sears said the years of working to remove the Bahamas from the FATF’s list has led to the build up of a remarkable level of expertise, and that the Bahamas' Director of Public Prosecutions has been recognized by the FATF as “a specialist”, assisting with the evaluation of other countries.

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