FinCEN notified U.S. financial institutions that the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") updated the list of jurisdictions with strategic anti-money laundering ("AML")/countering the financing of terrorism ("CFT") deficiencies. These changes to the FATF list may affect U.S. financial institutions' "obligations and risk-based approaches" related to the affected jurisdictions.
Notably, the FATF recognized progress made by Iran in adopting and making high-level commitments to an action plan addressing anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing, and conditionally suspended its call for counter-measures against Iran for a period of 12 months. Myanmar (Burma) and Papua New Guinea were removed from the FATF list due to progress in establishing the legal-regulatory framework to address strategic AML/CFT deficiencies on a technical level. More details regarding these changes can be found in the FinCEN Advisory.
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