The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body that sets international standards on anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). The FATF also monitors countries' progress in implementing these international AML/CFT standards (referred to as the FATF Recommendations).

The FATF identifies jurisdictions with weak measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in two FATF public documents that are issued three times a year. 

I. High-Risk Countries Identified by FATF
The following countries have been identified as high-risk jurisdictions by the FATF.

Myanmar has also been identfied by FATF to address its AML/CFT deficiencies.

High-risk jurisdictions are jurisdictions that have been identified as having significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation.

Action required by financial institutions:
Pursuant to section 10(1)(c) of the Financial Transactions Reporting (FTR) Act, regulation 20 of the FTR Regulations and FIU Enforceable Guideline 6 on dealing with high risk countries, all financial institutions must give special attention to and apply enhanced due diligence, proportionate to the risks, to business relationships and transactions with natural and legal persons (including financial institutions and non-face to face customers), and those acting on their behalf, from DPRK, Iran and Myanmar.

Enhanced due diligence consists of enhanced customer due diligence (CDD) as outlined in section 20 of the FTR Regulations. This includes enhanced:

Financial institutions should refer to FIU Enforceable Guideline 6 for further guidance on how to deal with high risk countries.

The FATF Public Statements on DPRK, Iran and Myanmar may be viewed at these links:

II. Countries under Increased Monitoring by FATF
The following countries have been under increased monitoring by the FATF:
Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Croatia; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Haiti; Jamaica; Kenya; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; Philippines; Senegal; South Africa; South Sudan; Syria; Tanzania; Turkey; Vietnam and Yemen.
Jurisdictions under increased monitoring are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring.

Action required by financial institutions:
Financial institutions are not required to apply enhanced due diligence measures to these jurisdictions.

However, financial institutions are encouraged to take into account the information provided in the FATF statement regarding each country in their money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments.

The FATF Public Statements may be viewed at these links: