Four good, two bad

Timon Molloy, Editor

After more than two years on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist of non-cooperative countries and territories (NCCTs), Russia finally secured its removal during the October plenary session in Paris. Dominica, Niue and the Marshall Islands , joined the celebrations when they were also adjudged to have made significant progress with their anti-money laundering regimes. Russia has since become an FATF observer but its aspirations do not stop there: “Next June we shall become a full-fledged member of that organization, there can be no doubts about that,” said Viktor Zubkov, chairman of the Financial Monitoring Committee (FMC), in a TASS report. He added that a FATF mission would visit Moscow in March 2003. In the meantime, the European Union confirmed its support for Russia’s efforts to combat money laundering with a grant of €2 million announced at the beginning of November. Speaking recently, Alexei Kudrin, the Russian Finance Minister said that the Duma had amended the country’s money laundering law to permit Russian banks to suspend transaction execution for two days in order to notify the FMC of suspicions; the Committee will be able to delay the funds transfer for a further five days while it investigates.