Macau report passed by Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

The 2021 report submitted by the Macau government, evaluating its efforts to counter money laundering, has been adopted by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), the Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) announced in a statement.

The APG is an international organization for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). This is the second follow-up report since the publication of the APG Mutual Evaluation Report of Macao SAR in 2017, the GIF noted.

The GIF noted that the Macau government submitted its first regular follow-up report in 2019 and successfully upgraded three Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations to largely compliant ratings.

With these upgrades, according to the GIF, Macau became the first member state to pass all 40 FATF recommendations on technical compliance assessment, of all globally evaluated members at that time.

Statistics from FATF showed that, as of late November 2021, 120 members out of 206 have been evaluated, with only five getting “straight As.” In addition, Macau has achieved satisfactory ratings in six of 11 effectiveness outcomes, making it the best performing member.

The GIF said that, after nearly two years of collaboration and communication between member agencies of the Interdepartmental Anti-Money Laundering/Combating of Financing of Terrorism Working Group and itself, the report was adopted by all APG members in December.

Macau maintained the complaint and largely compliant ratings (considered passing grades) of all 40 FATF technical compliance recommendations.

The GIF pledged that it will “remain vigilant as always to the continuous changes in the global financial market, continue to promote the practical implementation of AML/CFT laws and regulations, and strive to safeguard the financial and public security of Macau.” The future focus of APG mutual evaluations will be the effectiveness of implementation, with more stringent requirements for passing.