Macau to co-chair anti-money laundering group

Director of the Macau Financial Intelligence Office will co-chair the Asia Pacific Joint Group by International Money Laundering Organisation.

Macau.- Macau is to play a central role in efforts to curb anti-money laundering internationally.

Director of the Financial Intelligence Office (GIF), Connie Chu Un I, has been appointed as Co-Chair of the Asia/Pacific Joint Group by International Anti-Money Laundering Organisation.

According to reports from the MNA agency, the decision was approved by all members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) standard-setting body.

The Co-Chairs will report to the ICRG Co-Chairs regularly about the progress of regional members, with FATF members then deciding whether or not the members should remain on the watch list.

The GIF Legal Counsel has been previously appointed as the Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on FATF Issues of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering between 2010 and 2013.

The Financial Intelligence Office has recently revealed that the number of suspicious money laundering or terrorism financing transactions reported by gaming operators in Macau in 1Q20 has dropped by 30 per cent year-on-year to 356 reports.

In October 2019, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) said the city was considered to have made good progress in addressing its anti-money laundering ‘deficiencies’.

The report indicated that Macau has made good progress in ‘addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its 2017 mutual evaluation report, including through drafting revised legislation and guidelines’.