CBM’s Press Release: Response to statement of Financial Action Task Force

The Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) issued a press release on statement of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Chairman T. Raja Kumar.
It states that the plenary session of FATF was held on 20 and 21 October in Paris, France.
The events were attended by the Myanmar delegation, delegates representing the International Monetary Fund, 106 members of the global network and observer organizations, the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
Chairman of FATF T. Raja Kumar issued statements regarding Myanmar. Although Myanmar was put on high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action from jurisdictions under increased monitoring, it is here announced that it is not the jurisdictions subject to an FATF call on its members and other jurisdictions to apply countermeasures faced by North Korea and Iran which are now on the black list.
World countries and regions including Myanmar must follow the 40 recommendations of FATF. They include Anti-Money Laundering-AML, Countering the Financing of Terrorism-CFT and Targeted Financial Sanctions of Proliferation.
Although Myanmar is not an FATF member country, it is a member of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering-APG. Myanmar is following FATF recommendations, and although it was not compliant with over 20 standards out of 40 recommendations in the initial stage, it now meets 24 standards.
Myanmar was on that list between June 2011 and February 2016, and efforts are now being made to be removed from that list based on experiences, and it has already drafted the Action Plan to be implemented in the coming year.
Myanmar will have to face the Enhance Due Diligence-EDD in money transferring processes to foreign countries and the banks concerned can regularly operate their procedures such as making similar enquiries and collecting remittance documents.
Despite the high-risk jurisdictions being subject to a call for action, it is not a risk factor for Myanmar so people need not worry about it, and manipulations should not be done in the currency market. Actions will be taken against such doings that do not comply with the rules and regulations of the Central Bank of Myanmar.