Central bank chief confident the Philippines will be removed from FATF gray list

Philippine central bank governor Benjamin Diokno expressed confidence that the country will be removed from the gray list of global money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Diokno said government agencies are in close coordination to implement measures that will lead to the Philippines moving off the gray list or those jurisdictions under increased monitoring. The Philippines still has six months to go to address strategic deficiencies in countering money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. The Philippines was reincluded in the gray list of the FATF in June last year after it failed to satisfy the FATF-International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) in addressing the technical deficiencies raised by the Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering under its 2019 mutual evaluation review.