Iraq moves away from ‘grey list’ for money laundering
Iraq moves away from ‘grey list’ for money laundering
2024/08/19
The Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Office revealed that Iraq is far from being included in the gray list.
The representative of the office at the Central Bank, Hussein Al-Maqram, told Al-Sabah: “After the completion of the international mutual evaluation by the international team of experts that Iraq recently underwent – which lasted 14 months – to evaluate the technical commitment to the legal framework, regulations, instructions and controls for combating money laundering and terrorist financing,” adding: “The effectiveness of the systems for combating money laundering and terrorist financing was also evaluated, by providing statistics, in addition to practical cases, to prove the extent of the application of the legislative framework, in addition to the field visit.”
Al-Maqram added that “the evaluation report was discussed and approved by the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) last May,” noting that “the initial results confirmed that the Republic of Iraq is far from being included in the grey list (enhanced monitoring), and an action plan and recommendations were formulated by international evaluators to ensure compliance with international standards.”
The representative of money laundering at the Central Bank stated that “the office has automated its procedures for receiving reports through the (goAML) system, and completed the electronic link on this system with several parties,” noting that “the office seeks to cooperate with the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Council, to apply international standards, and apply the risk-based approach.”
Al-Maqram also stated that “the office supervises and follows up with all concerned parties to implement the strategic objectives of combating money laundering and terrorist financing for the years 2023-2027, while building updated, comprehensive and confidential databases to meet international requirements, in addition to training employees of the public and private sectors to spread awareness of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Al-Muqrim stressed the “accreditation of a judge from the Judicial Council and employees from the office and the Central Bank, as international resident experts with the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) and (FATF) to benefit from that expertise and reflect it inside Iraq, to prepare
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