Bulgaria was included in the "grey list" of countries under surveillance for money laundering

Bulgaria was included in the "grey list" of countries placed "under increased surveillance" by the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering (known by the abbreviation of its name in English, FATF), reported France Presse, quoted by BTA.

At the same time, Panama and the Cayman Islands have been removed from the list, according to a communique.

In this way, Bulgaria joins 22 other jurisdictions in this list, from which Albania and Jordan were also excluded. They have "strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction regimes" but are "actively working" with the Task Force to address them.

Over 200 countries and jurisdictions have committed to implement FATF standards.

The FATF is working with gray-listed countries on their progress in addressing money-laundering and terrorist financing issues, and "urges these jurisdictions to swiftly implement their action plans within the stipulated time frames," documents from the FATF said. the group approved at its plenary meeting in Paris.

The FATF did not amend its "blacklist" of countries with "serious strategic deficiencies", but called on countries and jurisdictions committed to implementing the group's norms to "in the most severe cases (. . .) apply countermeasures to protect the international financial system against money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the financing of proliferation" of nuclear weapons.

The FATF blacklist includes North Korea, Iran and Myanmar.

The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering is tasked with investigating the financing of terrorism and money laundering. It develops norms and makes proposals to the countries obliged to apply its norms to take the necessary measures to deal with the shortcomings that FATF has signaled, notes AFP.