22 October 2002
To: Chief Executive of all authorized insurance institutions
carrying on long term business
Dear Sir/Madam,
Further to my letters of 12 July 2002 , I write to advise you that the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") has decided at its October Plenary Meeting to remove the following four jurisdictions from the list of NCCTs :
- Dominica
- Marshall Islands
- Niue
- Russia
The FATF recognized that these jurisdictions had made significant progress in improving their anti-money laundering systems. Consequently, the procedures prescribed in Recommendation 21 Note of the FATF Forty Recommendations have been withdrawn in relation to such jurisdictions.
The updated list of the remaining 11 NCCTs is as follows :
- Cook Islands
- Nauru
- Egypt
- Nigeria
- Grenada
- Philippines
- Guatemala
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Indonesia
- Ukraine
- Myanmar
You are advised to continue to give special attention to businesses and transactions with persons, including companies and financial institutions, in the above NCCTs, in accordance with Recommendation 21 of the FATF Forty Recommendations.
In addition, due to the failure of Nauru to address the deficiencies of its offshore banking sector, the FATF calls for its member to continue to apply counter-measures against this jurisdiction. Accordingly, you should continue to apply the counter-measures against Nauru as set out in my letter of 10 December 2001.
Furthermore, in view of the inadequate progress made by Nigeria and Ukraine to address the deficiencies in their anti-money laundering regimes, the FATF has recommended the application of counter-measures from 15 December 2002 in respect of these two jurisdictions unless their governments enact significant legislation which addresses the identified money laundering concerns. I will keep you informed as and when there are developments to the status of counter-measures in respect of these two jurisdictions.
A copy of the Executive Summary of the FATF's October 2002 NCCTs Report is attached at Annex for easy reference.
The FATF will regularly review the NCCTs list. Changes to the list, if any, will be conveyed to you through similar circular in due course.
Should you have any enquiries, please contact Mr. William Hsieh at 2867 4529 or Ms. Carol Hui at 2867 2551.
Yours sincerely,
(Ros K. T. Lam)
Acting Commissioner of Insurance
Note:
Recommendation 21 : Financial institutions should give special attention to business relations and transactions with persons, including companies and financial institutions, from countries which do not or insufficiently apply these Recommendations. Whenever these transactions have no apparent economic or visible lawful purpose, their background and purpose should, as far as possible, be examined, the findings established in writing, and be available to help supervisors, auditors and law enforcement agencies.
The above materials are presented in PDF format, unless stated otherwise. Please download Adobe Reader for viewing. Install the Asian Font Pack if necessary.