Hungary and Ukraine

The Financial Action Task Force report, “Review to Identify Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories: Increasing the Worldwide Effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering Measures”, published in June 2000, was the first salvo in the latest campaign against jurisdictions with defective anti-money laundering regimes. Fifteen were named and shamed in the report. Since then the list has been reviewed at intervals – in February, June and September 2001 and February 2002 – and many changes have been made. Hungary and Ukraine, which Sue Grossey discusses in this article, are relatively new additions.

Sue Grossey

Hungary

Geography and economy

Hungary is a land-locked country that covers just over 93,000 square kilometres of central Europe, and shares borders with Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia. It occupies a strategic location astride the main land routes between Western Europe and the Balkan Peninsula as well as those between Ukraine and the Mediterranean basin.