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.

Continued as the Co-chair of the APJG, during 10^th to 20^th May, 2021, the Director of GIF chaired over nearly 20 virtual meetings, totaling approximately 60 hours, to follow up and review the progress of 4 jurisdictions under monitoring in relation to their work on anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing (AML/CFT). In addition, on 15^th June, 2021, the Director of GIF reported on the progress of the Asia-Pacific region’s jurisdictions identified in the monitoring list at the ICRG group meeting and on 23^rd June, 2021, participated in the relevant discussions during FATF plenary meetings.

To fulfil its obligations as a member, GIF must participate in the annual meetings of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and the Egmont Group.  In response to the impact of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the annual meetings of the two international organizations this year were held in virtual format in June and July.

Since the meetings of the Egmont Group were only limited to member FIUs (Financial Intelligence Units), only GIF representatives attended such meetings. As for APG annual meetings, the members of inter-departmental AML/CFT Working Group (AML/CFT WG) members were also invited to join the virtual meetings at the premises of GIF.  Agenda items included discussions on mutual evaluation reports or follow-up reports of various jurisdictions, membership issues, and the sharing of latest typologies, etc.

Since Macao SAR will submit the 2^nd follow-up report to APG in the fourth quarter this year, AML/CFT WG members not only gained experience of participating in international organization but also grasped the latest mutual evaluation related information to have an effective planning and allocation for future AML/CFT work through their participation in the relevant virtual meetings.  A total of around 60 representatives from 14 departments of AML/CFT WG attended this year annual meeting.

In addition to the above-mentioned meetings, GIF officers also participated in about 10 other meetings/seminars/trainings organized by international organizations virtually in the first half of 2021, some of which were also participated by AML/CFT WG members by invitation. The topics covered the supervision of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, AML/CFT risk assessment and supervision work, etc. GIF also took part in trainings related to FATF international standards and assessor trainings, to demonstrate the support of Macao SAR to the works of international organizations and to get well prepared for the future mutual evaluations.

As always, the Macao Special Administrative Region will continue to nominate staff to participate in international anti-money laundering organization affairs and actively participate in international work on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.