Ukraine is no Longer a Subject to FATF's Monitoring

KYIV, Ukraine, November 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

As an outcome of the Plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force, FATF recognized Ukraine's significant progress in improving its strategic anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.  Therefore, the intergovernmental body stated that Ukraine was no longer subject to FATF's monitoring under its on-going global AML/CFT compliance process.

At the FATF Plenary meeting, held in Paris on October 27-28, the intergovernmental policy-making body provided an update on the AML/CFT improvements in Ukraine. The FATF welcomed Ukraine's significant progress: Ukraine had largely met its commitments in its Action Plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF had identified last year in February. Taking the aforementioned into consideration, Ukraine is no longer subjected to the FATF's monitoring under its on-going global AML/CFT compliance process.

Ukraine, nonetheless, still faces a number of AML/CFT related challenges, that have been identified in its evaluation report, according to the discussions at the Plenary meeting. The FATF stated that Ukraine would cooperate with Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) in order to address the full range of respective issues.

Earlier, in September 2011, Ukraine submitted its evaluation report to the FATF. The document became a basis for Ukraine to be excluded from the "black list". According to the Head of the State Commission for Securities and Stock Market of Ukraine Dmytro Tevelev, 60 percent of the report was dedicated to the improvement of national legislation on combatting money laundering.  

Being excluded from the FATF's "black list" is of great importance for Ukraine especially in the light of current instability of the global financial market, said Iryna Akimova, the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. Ukraine became a subject to FATF's monitoring in 2010 because of the incompliance of Ukrainian legislation with FATF's standards. Since then the Ukrainian government together with the National Bank have been actively developing necessary legal base to amend Ukrainian legislation in accordance with FATF's requirements. As a result, Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, adopted four new laws in the beginning of 2011.