IMF: PH made significant progress in addressing money laundering

A view of the International Monetary Fund headquarters building in Washington, DC, on October 20, 2024, ahead of the 2024 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings. (Photo by Tierney CROSS / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has made significant progress in addressing money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

“The authorities have made significant progress in addressing outstanding anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) issues, which should continue,” the IMF said in a recent report.

“The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) initial determination that the Philippines has substantially completed its action plan is welcome.”

The FATF is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

READ: IMF calls for bank capital buildup in PH

In a report released in October, the FATF said the Philippines has completed its action plan to address deficiencies that had kept the country in the watchdog’s “grey list” since June 2021.

Countries and jurisdictions included in the FATF’s grey list are under “increased monitoring.”

The FATF said the Philippines was able to address the eight remaining action plan items, which include the demonstration of effective risk-based supervision of Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions; use of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) controls to mitigate risks associated with casino junket.

The country was also able to implement new registration requirements for Money or Value Transfer Services and sanctions for unregistered and illegal remittance operators.

The FATF also cited the Philippines’ compliance with enhanced law enforcement authorities’ access to beneficial ownership information and keeping the BO information accurate and up-to-date.

Other fulfilled action plan items are the use of financial intelligence and an increase in money laundering investigations and prosecutions; an increase in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of terrorist financing (TF) cases; the implementation of appropriate measures for the non-profit organization sector; and enhancement of the targeted financial sanctions framework for both TF and proliferation financing.

“Going forward [and] keeping up with evolving FATF requirements will be important in the context of the next mutual evaluation in 2027,” the IMF said.

It said reforming the bank secrecy law would also help strengthen AML/CFT effectiveness and enhance the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ supervisory powers.