DFA says outdated list to blame for denied forex exchange in Oslo
MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino tourist — the mother of journalist Gretchen Ho — was refused a currency exchange at Oslo’s main airport after a money changer wrongly claimed the Philippines was still on a global “money-laundering” watchlist.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday, October 9, that the stall at Gardermoen Airport in Norway had been using an outdated list that continued to tag the Philippines as a high-risk country, months after it was cleared by international regulators.
The Philippine Embassy in Oslo has since sought clarification from Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Supervisory Authority, according to the DFA.
“It was found out that the forex stall at Oslo airport is following an outdated list which still includes the Philippines in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list,” the DFA said.
The FATF list identifies countries with weak safeguards against money laundering and terrorism financing. The Philippines was removed from the list in February 2025, and from the European Union’s version in August, after it adopted stricter oversight measures for banks and financial institutions.
According to the DFA, Norwegian officials have committed to coordinating with their financial regulator to update the lists used by forex operators and delist the Philippines from countries tagged as “high risk.”
The clarification came after Ho posted on X (formerly Twitter) that her mother had been turned away while trying to exchange $300 at the airport.
The DFA said the refusal stemmed from outdated information, not from current policy, and stressed that the Philippines is no longer under FATF monitoring.
The Philippines' removal from the FATF grey list earlier this year ended nearly four years of increased international scrutiny on the country's "deficiencies" in fighting money laundering and terrorism financing. It was a development that was hailed by the Marcos administration as proof of reforms meant to clean up the country's financial system.
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