On 24 February 2020, HM Treasury (HMT) published an updated advisory notice regarding the risks posed by unsatisfactory money laundering and terrorist financing controls in a number of jurisdictions. The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 require firms to put policies and procedures in place in order to prevent activities related to money laundering and terrorist financing. The updated advisory notice follows the publication of two statements by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 21 February 2020 identifying jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering / counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regimes.

Annex A of the updated HMT advisory notice identified the following as high risk jurisdictions with significant strategic deficiencies in their AML/CTF regimes: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran.

Annex B of the HMT advisory notice identified the following jurisdictions that are under increased monitoring which are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their AML/CTF regimes: Albania, Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

The updated advisory notice states that as Trinidad and Tobago has made significant progress in improving its AML/CTF regime it is no longer subject to increased monitoring by the FATF.