Japan Pushes to End Myanmar's FATF Blacklist — SkimNews
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- Japan is pressing FATF to remove Myanmar from its blacklist and end enhanced screening of financial transactions; a Japanese government official said the change would make business easier.
- FATF said its 40-member body would announce any blacklist change after Friday’s third and final plenary in Paris; a second source said at least one other major Asian country also wants removal, though it was unclear whether a change was imminent.
- Myanmar was added to the blacklist in October 2022 after missing a deadline to address deficiencies; enhanced due diligence is required while humanitarian purposes, legitimate nonprofit activity and remittances must not be disrupted.
- FATF said in June that Myanmar had shown some progress but urgently needed to ensure money laundering was investigated and prosecuted, while illicit finance from cyberfraud remained a concern.
- United States held direct talks with Myanmar’s military-backed government in Naypyidaw last month—the highest-level contact since the 2021 coup—focused on shutting scam centres, followed by more secretive talks in Tokyo earlier this month.
- Japan has maintained a large corporate presence in Myanmar even as other firms fled after the coup; the government official said delisting would help Myanmar’s economy recover.
- Myanmar’s military-backed government says it is participating in a multinational effort to curb scam centres and making efforts to seize narcotics, while armed groups carry out drug production and trafficking and some industrial-scale scam centres are run by militia aligned with the government.
Why it matters: For Japanese companies that stayed in Myanmar after others fled, removal would relax enhanced screening and support Japan’s stated goal of helping Myanmar’s economy recover. The 40-member FATF’s June review nonetheless said money-laundering enforcement remained deficient and cyberfraud-linked illicit finance unresolved, pairing commercial relief with unresolved compliance concerns.
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