An International Analysis of FATF Recommendations and Compliance by DNFBPS

Abstract

Abstract Professionals such as lawyers, accountants, company secretaries and real estate agents who are under the category of Designated Nonfinancial Business and Professions (DNFBPs) are expected to comply with the requirements of FATF 40+9 Recommendation. FATF recommends that DNFBPs need to comply with five major recommendations (i.e. Recommendations 12, 16,17,20,24 and 25) to combat the prevalence of money laundering and terrorism financing. This includes the need to 1) conduct due diligent on their clients 2) maintain proper records and documentation of related transactions for at least six years; and 3) submit a suspicious transaction report to the Competent Authority, who is in charge of Anti-Money Laundering regime of a country. This study analyses the latest Mutual Evaluation reports of countries within the Asia Pacific Group (APG) to assess the level of compliance of the countries in pursuant to the compliance of DNFBPs and also analyze the characteristics of the compliance rating of the DNFBPs. In general, the findings show low level of compliance for these standards, implicating either lack of awareness or poor enforcement by the regulators.