Gibraltar officially removed from FATF grey list
Decision confirmed at press conference following the organisation’s fifth plenary at their headquarters in Paris
Gibraltar has officially been removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list of jurisdictions after 20 months of operating under intense financial scrutiny.
The FATF grey list is a register of jurisdictions that require increased monitoring to ensure the maximum is being done to fulfil anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CTF) obligations.
Gibraltar was placed on the FATF list in June 2022 and, despite the organisation admitting that good progress had been made, one year later they opted to keep the peninsula on review having decided the igaming hub had complied with all but two of its recommendations.
The outstanding two conditions centred around countering money laundering and failing to punish businesses not complying with the jurisdiction’s rules.
Since then, the British Overseas Territory has worked tirelessly to address the remaining two points and, in October last year, the FATF confirmed that Gibraltar had substantially completed the outstanding conditions.
FATF officials visited Gibraltar last month where it confirmed the igaming hub had indeed made significant progress in addressing the final two recommended actions.
Fast forward one month and the embargo has officially been lifted, meaning that the Rock will no longer be operating under FATF’s increased monitoring conditions.
On the day of the news, 23 February, Gibraltar’s Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry Nigel Feetham took to LinkedIn to share how the plenary meeting went.
He said: “In my speech today, I gave the FATF a high-level political commitment to continue the work we have been doing.
“I also made it clear I would offer my resignation if the outcome today was not as we had hoped for, reflecting how serious we took this process, ensuring that the high-level political commitment to the FATF standards comes with real-life consequences including for us politicians.
!Thankfully, today’s decision means that my resignation is unnecessary.
“This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all our law enforcement agencies, regulators and authorities.”
FATF president, T. Raja Kumar, added: “They [all countries removed from the list at this time] have all taken substantial steps to improve their AML/CFT systems and address all items on their action plans.
“This week, the plenary determined that their efforts are ongoing and sustainable and that they have demonstrated the necessary political will to sustain and continue these changes. I commend the efforts taken by all four jurisdictions, and I congratulate them”.
Gibraltar is one of four countries to come off the list of high-risk jurisdictions, with the others being Barbados, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uganda.