The Philippines has failed in its bid to be removed from the group of countries and territories black-listed by the global anti-money laundering watchdog.
The 29-nation Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said yesterday after its week-long meeting in Hong Kong that the Philippines had been ordered back to the drawing board to redraft the anti-money laundering act it passed in September.
FATF head Clarie Lo Ku Ka-lee said: 'We had a number of face-to-face meetings with non-complying countries and territories and in the case of the Philippines we noted that the Government implemented the anti-money laundering act but that there were still some deficiencies that have been identified and which have to be addressed.'
Mrs Lo is the Commissioner for Narcotics in Hong Kong and holds the FATF presidency this year.
The Pacific island of Nauru also was instructed to tighten its anti-money-laundering regime, with particular attention put on its licensing and regulation, as well as the supervision of its offshore banking sector.
However, another of the non-compliant countries - Hungary - emerged with a glowing report after the assessment and was singled out by Mrs Lo for the rapid and significant progress it had made to eliminate deficiencies identified in its laws.
Along with St Kitts and Nevis, Hungary has been invited to show how it plans to implement its legislation.
