The world's ndustrialized nations, in a fresh attack on money laundering, on Friday added six countries, including Egypt, to a blacklist.
The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said its list of money laundering havens would now include six new members: Egypt, Guatamala, Hungary, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nigeria.
Three countries already on the list, Russia, the Philippines and the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, had also taken insufficient steps to fight the recycling of illicit gains, said an annual FATF report, published on its website.
Four others countries, the Bahamas, the Caymans, Liechtenstein and Panama, were judged to have taken sufficient action to close money laundering loopholes and were taken off the list.
The revised list, drawn up during a meeting of FATF members in Paris, names 17 countries and territories.
The new members of the list of non-cooperative countries and territories were cited for various failings, including lack of proper legislation or supervision.
Other failings include “possibility for individuals or legal entities to operate a financial institution without authorization or registration or with very rudimentary requirements for authorization or registration.”
The task force threatened stringent measures to identify clients from the three countries and to launch tough scrutiny of their banks' applications for opening overseas bank branches.
Normal businesses may also be warned that deals with those countries could involve money laundering, it said.
Countermeasures will begin in September to give the trio time to rectify the problems, said the task force.
The FATF blacklist names the Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Nieue, the Philippines, Russia, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
FATF bills itself as an inter-governmental body which develops and promotes policies, both nationally and internationally, to combat money laundering.
As a "policy making body," its primary goal is to generate the political will necessary for bringing about national legislative and regulatory reforms in this area, it says.
The FATF monitors its members' progress in building effective anti-money laundering systems, reviews laundering techniques, and promotes the adoption and implementation of money laundering countermeasures in non-member countries.
The FATF carries out these activities in cooperation with other international bodies involved in the fight against money laundering.
The FATF does not have a rigidly defined constitution or an unlimited lifespan.
First created in 1989, the FATF has now been in existence for over ten years.
It will carry out its mission until 2004, at which time its member governments must decide whether or not to continue this effort, according to the web site information – Albawaba.com
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