The Philippines is targeting to exit the money laundering ‘grey list’ of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force by January 2025, raising the country’s appeal to foreign investors and driving economic growth.
Eli Remolona Jr., chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, said the Philippines plans to demonstrate compliance with the remaining three out of 18 action items during the FATF’s next plenary meeting in October.
“We don’t get out of the grey list by October. Once we’re told we have largely addressed these three main items, there’s an exit process that ensues,” he said during a business forum organized by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines and San Miguel Corp.
“In October they decide whether we have fulfilled the 18 [action items] and then between October and January they check. January is the exit date,” Remolona said.
The Philippines has been on the grey list since the term of President Duterte in June 2021.
In a previous report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippines was urged to establish credible controls for casino junkets, intensify cross-border measures at seaports and airports to detect false currency declarations, and increase prosecutions for terrorist financing.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
