The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-money laundering watchdog, said the Philippines has come closer to exiting the FATF greylist after the country acted on all 18 tasks in its action plan.

The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said the FATF recently reviewed the government’s progress on the remaining eight items in its action plan after the international watchdog included the country in its greylist in June 2021.

The items include increased use of financial intelligence and prosecutions linked to money laundering, new registration requirements for money transfer service firms, and an increase in the number of sanctioned unregistered, and illegal remittance operators, among others.

Evaluation report

The FATF shared its evaluation report in its statement released on 25 October, AMLC said.

“The Philippines this week moved closer to existing anti-money laundering watchlists by 2025, paving the way for Filipinos, especially overseas Filipino workers, to benefit from faster and cheaper remittances and other transactions,” AMLC said.

Inclusion in the FATF grey list means members from a total of 40 countries can refuse or impose restrictions on financial transactions with greylisted countries.

In the first eight months of 2021, the AMLC reported that it filed 85 criminal and civil cases against transactions worth P1.31 billion linked to terrorism activities.

Anti-money laundering efforts

To intensify efforts against money laundering, the government created the National Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorism Financing, and undertook a Counter-Proliferation Financing Strategy 2023-2027 to ensure that the Philippines stays out of the bad lists of related watchdog groups and institutions.

In July last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared an “urgent” order for the country’s exit from the FATF greylist, mobilizing several government agencies to accomplish the anti-money laundering action plan by the end of 2024.

As a final step for the Philippines’ exclusion from the FATF greylist, AMLC said the FATF’s Asia/Pacific Joint Group will visit the country in early 2025 to verify whether the government can sustain reforms for its 18-item action plan against money laundering.