Sri Lanka’s Anti-Money laundering reforms continue successfully

Sri Lanka’s ( AML/ CFT) AntiMoney Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism reforms have begun and is being sustained official sources said.

The Financial Action Task Force ( FATF), the global policy setter on AML/CFT has made the initial determination that Sri Lanka has completed its action plan and warrants an on- site assessment.

The decision was taken at the FATF Plenary held in Paris recently. In October 2016, the FATF announced that Sri Lanka will be subjected to a review of the International Cooperation Review Group ( ICRG) of the FATF to assess the progress of AML/ CFT effectiveness in the country.

After several discussions and progress reports, the FATF indicated that Sri Lanka has not made sufficient progress in four areas, namely International Cooperation, Supervision, Legal Persons and Arrangements and Targeted Financial Sanctions on Proliferations ( North Korea and Iran), a senior official said.

As a result, the FATF at its plenary held at Buenos Aires, Argentina in October 2017, listed Sri Lanka as a jurisdiction with strategic AML/ CFT deficiencies in the FATF’s Compliance Document which is more commonly identified as “the Grey List” and provided a time bound Action Plan for implementation.

Since the listing in November 2017, the Financial Intelligence Unit together with other stakeholders has taken a series of effective and tangible steps to implement the FATF Action Plan.