Since late April 2020, the Director of the Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) has been formally appointed as the Co-chair of the Asia/Pacific Joint Group (APJG), a regional sub-group of the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) which is responsible for establishing sanction and monitoring lists under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering organization.

The Co-chair of the APJG needs to hold three face-to-face meetings with the joint group every year to follow up the progresses of the members listed in the monitoring list. Taking into account the global pandemic of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) and the border control measures of different regions, FATF decided to completely suspend the review process of the ICRG. However, due to the special request of some member regions of continuous reporting of its significant progresses to the ICRG, in pursuit of being removed from the monitoring list, the ICRG decided to arrange virtual meetings to review the progresses of those individual members.

According to the decision of the FATF plenary meeting in June 2020, two jurisdictions in all ICRG regional groups have made significant progresses in anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing follow-up, one of which is in the Asia/Pacific region. Therefore, the Asia/Pacific member needs to follow ICRG procedures to arrange a review team for on-site inspection, including meetings with high-level local officials, various government departments and private sector to confirm relevant progresses and commitments. As the Co-chair of the APJG, the Director of GIF participated in the inspection and review process in the form of virtual meetings on 1^st and 2^nd October.

In order to fulfill the role of APJG Co-chair, the Director of GIF also chaired the pre-meetings with two other Asia/Pacific members on the monitoring list for five consecutive days from 14^th to 18^th September to hear their progresses and to decide whether they should continue to be included in the monitoring list. The FATF monitoring list can be found on the website of GIF and FATF.

https://www.gif.gov.mo/web1/cn_highriskjurisdict.html

AND

https://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/high-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/documents/increased-monitoring-june-2020.html

The Macao SAR continues to nominate staff to participate in international anti-money laundering organization affairs. On the one hand, it helps to enhance the image of the Macao SAR, as well as to grasp the latest assessment requirements and policies of the FATF. It also highlights the active participation of the Macao SAR in international work on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.