FATF cancels meeting in RP

The Asia Pacific Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF-APG) has cancelled its meeting in Manila at the end of this month. It is the latest in a series of international conferences that have fallen casualty to the SARS scare.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said yesterday that the FATF-APG has decided against holding the meeting as scheduled until health officials have shed more light on the dreaded Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

As the Arroyo administration struggled to convince the FATF to remove the Philippines from its list of non-cooperative countries, it has also begun preparations for the annual meeting of the APG to be held in Manila on May 26 to 30, 2003.

BSP Governor Rafael Buenaventura said the FATF has not set a new schedule for the meeting but he confirmed that fears of the SARS epidemic was the primary factor that led to the cancellation.

This would have been the second time that the country will be hosting the annual meeting of the APG which last held its meeting in Manila in 1999.

As the meeting approached, Philippine officials have escalated efforts to convince the FATF of removing the country from its blacklist.

Sources said the APG would be critical in this process since the FATF acts on recommendations of its Asia-Pacific counterpart when it decides the country’s fate in its plenary sessions.

Although the APG is an autonomous regional anti-money laundering body, the FATF regularly attends its meetings and it regularly attends FATF meetings to discuss regional issues and recommendations on specific Asia Pacific countries.

The APG also uses the so-called FATF 40 Recommendations as its primary guideline for the implementation of effective anti-money laundering measures. The APG also uses similar mechanisms to those used by the FATF to monitor and facilitate progress.

The APG is headed by two co-chairmen with Australia occupying one of the positions while the other is rotated every two years among the members. The Australian chairman is Commissioner Mick Keelty, head of the Board of the Australian Crime Commission, a specialist law enforcement agency established to combat organised crime.