The Philippines has been granted another year in order to meet requirements by the international financial watchdog on money laundering in order to remove itself from its grey list. This comes after the nation’s central bank governor informed media that they had missed the deadline for the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) compliance mandate, set for this month, largely due to failings regarding the nation’s Bank Secrecy Law.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla told media that the international anti-money laundering watchdog had praised the nation’s moves to improve legislation on AML, but that it had cited a low number of cases against money laundering and terrorist-financing violators, with a low conviction rate resulting from those brought to trial.
The banking official, who also chairs the nation’s Anti-Money Laundering Council says that he has since had meetings with the Department of Justice to remedy the problems.
