The Philippines will undergo a fresh evaluation this year to test its compliance with international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) standards, the country’s financial intelligence unit said on Thursday. The Anti-Money Laundering Council said that as a founding member of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, the Philippines had committed to undergo to a third round of mutual evaluations (ME) together with 41 APG member-jurisdictions. The AMLC will be the lead agency for the evaluation, which consists of an technical compliance assessment and an effectiveness assessment. An evaluation result of non-compliance with Financial Action Task Force recommendations and low level effectiveness of the AML/CFT system would put the country back on the International Cooperation Review Group’s list of “monitored jurisdictions”. Maintaining a suitable investment climate is intimately connected to preserving the integrity of the financial system, and the country’s respective agencies can contribute in a very tangible way in this regard,” he said.

Source: Manila Times April 12, 2018 16:30 UTC