On March 14, 2024, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation amending Delegated Regulation 2016/1675 concerning the update of the list of high-risk countries under 4MLD. With this addition, the EU list now comprises 25 member countries.
Jurisdictions added to the list:
– Kenya: Added due to inadequate terrorist financing risk assessments, weak supervision of financial institutions, lack of oversight for virtual asset service providers, inconsistent suspicious transaction reporting, and weak implementation of targeted financial sanctions.
– Namibia: Added due to deficiencies in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervision, including limited use of enhanced due diligence, inconsistent adherence to targeted financial sanctions, gaps in beneficial ownership information filing, and insufficient resources and training for strategic analysis.
Four countries were removed from the list:
– Barbados: Enhanced regulatory framework with effective risk-based supervision, prevention of illicit entity activities, and improved access to beneficial ownership data.
– Gibraltar: Enhanced AML/CFT framework with dissuasive sanctions for breaches, pursuit of confiscation judgments, especially in non-bank financial sectors.
– Uganda: Improved AML/CFT regime with a national strategy, enhanced mutual legal assistance, risk-based supervision, aligned investigations with risk profiles, and capacity building in terrorist financing.
– United Arab Emirates: Strengthened AML/CFT regime by increasing mutual legal assistance requests, enhancing supervisor understanding of risks, imposing effective sanctions, improving suspicious transaction reporting, understanding risks in legal persons’ abuse, and enhancing resources for investigations and prosecutions.
List (EU) 2016/1675 as of March 14, 2024:
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Croatia
Democratic Republic of Congo
Haiti
Jamaica
Kenya
Mali
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Philippines
Senegal
South Africa
South Sudan
Syria
Tanzania
Turkey
Vietnam
Yemen
