Name and Shame? Stronger Tactics Needed to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism

On Thursday, members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its regional counterpart, the Middle East and North African Financial Action Task Force (MENA- FATF) convened for a plenary meeting in Abu Dhabi. The end product was a blacklist of 8 countries that have strategic deficiencies in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

Acknowledging the dangers of the illicit financial world is always a welcome development. However, FATF’s inclusion of only 8 countries on this blacklist contrasts sharply with the 60 highlighted by the U.S. State Department’s “Jurisdictions of Primary Concern” list. Indeed, Global Financial Integrity’s own Tom Cardamone stated that “eight countries on the ‘black’ list is woefully short.” Considering the much longer list from the State Department’s report, Mr. Cardamone pointed out that, “the criteria for a country being listed as being cooperative with the FATF are fairly weak.”

Continue Reading »