RP may be out of FATF list by Feb. — Buenaventura

The Philippines could be out of the Paris-based Financial Advisory Task Force’s list of uncooperative countries depending on whether or not the Philippine panel was able to convince the Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the FATF that the government is serious in its efforts to combat money laundering.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Rafael B. Buenaventura who heads the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLAC), said they expect the APG to send a team that will investigate the claims made by the Philippine panel during a presentation in Brisbane earlier this week. The APG team will submit a report to the FATF board which is scheduled to meet in February next year.

Buenaventura and several other government officials went to Australia earlier this week to present to the APG the efforts being made by the government to put into place the anti-money laundering legal and physical infrastructure.

"We clarified the various legal systems which the country put into place to fight money laundering," the BSP Governor said.

Buenaventura said the FATF expressed concern over certain issues such as the P4-million threshold and the Bank Secrecy Law.

"The P4-million threshold is now the covered transaction while any amount lower than that can be covered by the suspicious transaction requirements under the various administrative order and charters of the three lead government agencies," he explained. The three lead government agencies are the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Insurance Commission (IC), and the BSP.

However, the need to amend RA 9160 becomes urgent if the APG is not convinced. And if the amendments are not put into place before the February 2003 FATF meeting, the country would not be de-listed, or worse, sanctions could be imposed.

Possible impact of a sanction is delay in the processing of legitimate international business transactions. Government authorities of foreign nations may demand more documentary proof of ownership than usual.

"Delays are a very expensive nuisance," the Makati Business Club (MBC) and the BSP warned.

Strict and rigid clearing system for transactions could be experienced between countries that have strong anti-money laundering laws in the Philippines.

Buenaventura refused to comment on the forms of sanctions that could be imposed to a country reprimanded by the task force.