The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) organisation, has included both Monaco and Venezuela on its ‘grey list’. After removing Jamaica and Turkey, and preserving North Korea and Iran’s status on the black list, the FATF announced that it included Monaco and Venezuela on a grey list with countries that require increased levels of monitoring.

The move comes although Monaco took a series of actions that followed the country being singled out by the Council of Europe’s AML body due to unverified claims. In addition, the FATF made the announcement about adding both Monaco and Venezuela to the grey list at a plenary meeting from Singapore. The decision to include both countries comes as the two did not make considerable progress in preventing illicit financial flows. On the other hand, the FATF eliminated Jamaica and Turkey from the grey list following both countries’ moves to eliminate identified deficiencies in their efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Why did the FATF extend its grey list? Despite cooperating with the FATF to mitigate their issues, grey list countries are deemed as having strategic deficiencies in countering money laundering and terrorist financing. Representatives from the organisation underlined that even if Monaco made substantial progress since 2022, the nation still needs to address deficiencies to pass the FATF’s evaluation. In response to the current news, officials from Monaco’s government confirmed the country’s commitment to implementing the required recommendations included in the declaration, following the planned deadlines.

Also, the FATF’s review revealed that Monaco did not make sufficient effort to mitigate money laundering from fraud committed abroad or set out procedures that can remove criminal assets. Moreover, the FATF has a black list of countries which are considered to be high-risk jurisdictions, with the organisation encouraging countermeasures against Iran and North Korea. Also, the regulatory body warned about North Korea’s illegal activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and its financing. .