On 23 October 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a public statement titled: “Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring”. There are 16 jurisdictions that FATF have identified that are under and subject to increased monitoring. This essentially means that the jurisdictions have committed to working swiftly with FATF to resolve and address the identified strategic deficiencies within an agreed timeframe.

These 16 jurisdictions include:

Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nicarágua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Relevant persons under the BVI’s anti-money laundering regime who are required to comply with the requirements in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations 2008 and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Code of Practice 2008 should note the concerns expressed by FATF with respect to the 16 jurisdictions and consider any associated risks. Relevant persons should conduct a risk assessment on underlying clients to the extent that any of them are based in these 16 jurisdictions and adopt the appropriate level of assessment on a case by case approach.

The FATF statement can be found here.