Sri Lanka removed from FATF’s Grey List: Report

News:Sri Lanka has been removed from ‘Grey List’ of Financial Action Task Force(FATF).

Facts:

Why was Sri Lanka removed?

• Sri Lanka was removed following the measures taken by the country on financial security

When was Sri Lanka added?

• Sri Lanka was first included in the FATF’s blacklist in 2011 and by 2012 it was listed in the list as a dangerous country with no commitment to financial security plan.
• In 2016, FATF had subjected Sri Lanka to a review for assessing the progress of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism(AML/CFT) effectiveness in country.
• Sri Lanka was declared a cooperating state in 2016 and FATF had decided to put Sri Lanka on its grey list from November 2017. 

Additional information:

About FATF:

• The Financial Action Task Force(FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.
• It is a policy-making body which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas.
• The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France.

Objectives:

• The objectives of the FATF are to (a) set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures (b) for combating money laundering (c)terrorist financing and (d) other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Listing by FATF:FATF maintains two different lists of countries:

• Grey list:The grey list contains those countries that have deficiencies in their anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.But they commit to an action plan to address these loopholes, 
• Black list:These countries are those that do not end up doing enough even after having deficiencies in their anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.