The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), the international organisation for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), adopted the latest 2021 Mutual Evaluation Follow-up Report of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) last month, the local government’s Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) said in a statement yesterday.
This is the second Follow-up Report since the publication of APG Mutual Evaluation Report of the MSAR in 2017, the office pointed out.
According to the statement, the MSAR submitted the first regular Follow-up Report to the APG in 2019, and successfully upgraded 3 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations to largely compliant ratings, and became the first member which passed all 40 FATF Recommendations on technical compliance assessment among all globally evaluated members at that time.
After nearly two years’ concerted efforts of collaboration and communication between member agencies of the Interdepartmental Anti-Money Laundering/Combating of Financing of Terrorism Working Group (the AML/CFT Working Group) and the Financial Intelligence Office, the MSAR submitted the second Follow-up Report in September 2021 to demonstrate the latest developments of the AML/CFT regime, the statement underlined.
The report was then adopted by all APG members last month while successfully maintaining the complaint and largely compliant ratings (passing grade) of all 40 FATF Technical Compliance Recommendations, the statement said.
According to FATF statistics, as of late November 2021, 120 members out of 206 members globally had been evaluated, where only five members passed all 40 Technical Compliance Recommendations,
“The MSAR is still the only APG member that has passed all 40 Technical Compliance Recommendations,” the statement said, adding that “in addition, the MSAR, which has achieved satisfactory ratings in six outcomes out of 11 effectiveness outcomes, is the member with the best result in effectiveness outcomes among the 5 aforementioned members.”
The statement stressed that “the achievements of the MSAR in the APG mutual evaluation are all due to the joint efforts of various governmental agencies and private entities, especially the close cooperation between the 15 member agencies of AML/CFT Working Group and the active cooperation from different sectors.”
As, according to the statement, the future focus of the APG mutual evaluation will be on implementation effectiveness, the requirements for passing will be more stringent.
“The MSAR shall remain vigilant as always to the continuous changes in the global financial market, continue to promote the practical implementation of AML/CFT laws and regulations, and strive to safeguard the financial and public security of the MSAR,” the statement concluded.
Logo of the Sydney-based Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) – Image courtesy of Wikipedia
