Circular Letter No. CC/2020/00000030: Disclosure of FATF Communications (February 2020 Plenary Meeting)

Circular Letter No. CC/2020/00000030
Sent to:
Credit Institutions; Financial Companies; Payment Institutions and Electronic Money Institutions.
Mod. 99999994/T – 01/14
Subject: Disclosure of FATF communications (February 2020 plenary meeting)

I. COMMUNICATIONS ISSUED BY THE FATF
With the aim of protecting the international financial system from the risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as fostering adequate compliance with AML/CFT standards, the FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (FATF) acts to identify jurisdictions that present strategic deficiencies in matters of money laundering and terrorist financing and to develop coordinated and decisive responses worldwide to combat these realities.

Following its plenary meeting of February 19-21, 2020, the FATF released the following documents:
a. HIGH-RISK JURISDICTIONS SUBJECT TO A CALL FOR ACTION (formerly known as Public Statement), dated February 21, 2020 Document identifying jurisdictions subject to countermeasures and jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing that have not made sufficient progress in overcoming these deficiencies and/or have not agreed with the FATF on an action plan for this purpose. The full content of this document can be consulted at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/high-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/documents/call-for-action-february-2020.html

b. JURISDICTIONS UNDER INCREASED MONITORING (formerly known as Improving Global AML/CFT Compliance: On-Going Process), dated February 21, 2020 Document identifying jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing that have developed an action plan to overcome them and are subject to a FATF monitoring process. The full content of this document can be consulted at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/high-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/documents/increased-monitoring-february-2020.html

II. COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK WITH COMMUNICATIONS ISSUED BY THE FATF IN OCTOBER 2019

HIGH-RISK JURISDICTIONS SUBJECT TO A CALL FOR ACTION | JURISDICTIONS UNDER INCREASED MONITORING JURISDICTIONS SUBJECT TO THE APPLICATION OF COUNTERMEASURES | JURISDICTIONS SUBJECT TO SPECIAL RISK ASSESSMENT JURISDICTIONS SUBJECT TO A MONITORING PROCESS | JURISDICTIONS THAT HAVE LEFT THE MONITORING PROCESS

PLENARY MEETING
19 TO 21 FEBRUARY 2020
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) Islamic Republic of Iran -- Albania, Arab Republic of Syria, Botswana, Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Ghana, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Jamaica, Republic of Mauritius, Republic of Nicaragua, Republic of Panama, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Uganda, Republic of Zimbabwe, Kingdom of Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Yemen

PLENARY MEETING
16 TO 18 OCTOBER 2019
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) Islamic Republic of Iran Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Kingdom of Cambodia, Mongolia, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Zimbabwe, Arab Republic of Syria, Botswana, Ghana, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Republic of Panama, Yemen Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic, Republic of Tunisia, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Mod. 40000375/T – 01/14

III. PROCEDURES AND MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED BY INSTITUTIONS
In view of the content of the documents produced by the FATF and within the scope of the duty to disseminate information to which supervisory authorities are bound (Article 120 of Law No. 83/2017, of August 18 - "Law No. 83/2017"), the Bank of Portugal informs the following, regarding business relationships, occasional transactions, and operations carried out with persons, entities, and collective interest centers without legal personality1 residing or established in the jurisdictions identified below:

a. Considering the existence of a very high risk of money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, it is determined, under the terms and for the purposes of Article 99(1)(b) of Law No. 83/2017, the adoption of countermeasures, proportional to those risks, regarding the DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (NORTH KOREA) and the ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, which must in any case include the countermeasures identified in Article 99(3)(d) to (f) and (i) of the aforementioned Law No. 83/2017.

b. Enhanced identification and due diligence measures shall continue to be adopted, under Article 36(2) and Article 37(2)(b) of the aforementioned Law No. 83/2017, and all business relationships, occasional transactions, and operations involving the DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (NORTH KOREA) or the ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN shall be examined with special care, necessarily including the measures specified in the High-Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call For Action.

c. Regarding business relationships, occasional transactions, and operations involving jurisdictions subject to a monitoring process, or other high-risk third countries included in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 of July 14, 2016, in its current version2, enhanced measures deemed proportional to the specifically identified risk shall be adopted, without prejudice to the above, under Article 36(2), Article 37(1), and Article 37(2)(b) of the aforementioned Law No. 83/2017.

*
Supplementary information regarding the conclusions of the FATF plenary meeting referred to in the previous SECTION I may be obtained on the website www.fatf-gafi.org.

1 Including their respective representatives and beneficial owners.
2 The consolidated version of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 can be consulted at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/PT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02016R1675-20181022&qid=1551907395826&from=EN, although this does not dispense with consulting the binding versions published in the Official Journal of the European Union.