Lists Of High-Risk Countries Remain Important

The objective indicator for high-risk countries in the Implementing Decree for the 2018 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act has been withdrawn. This means that a transaction involving a country on the European Commission's list of high-risk third countries no longer needs to be reported automatically to the Financial Intelligence Unit in cases where that was previously required. The high-risk list does continue to be relevant, however, for the subjective indicators. When assessing whether a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorism financing, account must be taken of the factors listed in Annexes II and III to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD). It follows from Annex III that there is a higher risk of money laundering or terrorism financing if a transaction involves a country without effective AML/CFT systems.