Actions on money laundering to be taken
Actions on money laundering to be taken
Members of the National Coordination Committee on Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism on Friday consulted on the FATF/ICRG process, in particularly Special Recommendation ??? (SR ???) on the freezing and confiscation of terrorist assets.
The consultation workshop on SR ??? and FATF/ICRG process was held in Vientiane and attended by members of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bank of Lao PDR.
Laos is a member of the Asia/Pacific Regional Review Group (APG) so we need to implement its obligations to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and international standards on AML/CFT.
In 2010, Laos was firstly evaluated by FATF's APG and the evaluation indicated Laos having deficiencies on AML/CFT.
This resulted in Laos being placed on the Grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
In June 2013, Laos adopted its action plan to address these deficiencies and the Bank of the Lao PDR has actively improved deficiencies defined in the action plan of Laos, and will attend a meeting every four months to report on the progress, said Director General of the Anti-Money Laundering Intelligence Unit under the Bank of the Lao PDR, Mr Phanthaboun Sayaphet.
He noted that in the past Laos had made progress such as the promulgation of the law on Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism approved by the National Assembly in July 2014, issuance on decree on establishment of Coordination Committee on Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and other legislations in translating the law.
The FATF plenary meeting in October this year placed Laos on the Dark Grey List due to the country's inability to timely meet priority regulations.
In addition to that, the FATF encourages Laos to address its AML/CFT deficiencies and continue the process of implementing its action plan within the next four months.
If Laos makes insufficient progress, the country will be placed in Public Statement, Mr Phanthaboun said.
He said this meeting gave an opportunity to participants to discuss strategies and issues ensuring success of the country in exiting the ICRG process, in particularly SR ??? on the freezing and confiscation of terrorist assets defined in the law on AML/CFT and regulations related to AML/CFT.
During the meeting, APG Secretariat Principle Executive Officer, Mr David Shannon, explained about engaging support from bilateral and multilateral partners such as the UNODC, World Bank, and others.
In addition, Mr Chris Batt, an expert from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Hanoi outlined the process of money laundering occurring in neighbouring countries, especially in Vietnam.
