On the occasion of its plenary meeting held on Friday Last February 13, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Kuwait and Papua New Guinea on its' grey 'list of countries subject to a strengthened surveillance in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

Several shortcomings in the national system of Kuwait and Papua New Guinea have been identified by FATF evaluators: register of beneficial owners incomplete, real estate sector insufficiently mobilized for BC-FT purposes, lawsuits too few judicial proceedings... from technical failures to recommendations of the FATF, sanctioned by this placing under surveillance. Both countries have However, indicated to deploy a national BC-FT strategic plan. En Indeed, Kuwait must in particular strengthen the awareness of agents real estate and dealers in metals and precious stones to the declaration suspicious transactions. For its part, Papua New Guinea must improve risk-based supervision of banks, services of money transfer and non-financial businesses and professions at high risk.

Kuwait and Papua New Guinea have committed to working with the FATF to strengthen the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regimes.

In addition, this plenary in Mexico City allowed the adoption of a report on digital fraud, in a context a significant increase in online scams.