Financial Crime World

Title: FATF Upgrades Belgium’s Anti-Money Laundering Rating: Progress on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Measures

FATF Upgrades Belgium’s Rating: Significant Progress in AML/CTF Framework

Paris, September 3, 2018 – The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has upgraded Belgium’s rating under 15 of its Recommendations following substantial progress in enhancing its framework to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.

Belgium’s Journey to Improve AML/CTF Measures

Belgium entered an enhanced follow-up process after its 2015 mutual evaluation report identified shortcomings in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) measures and compliance with FATF Recommendations.

To showcase its progress, the country reported back to the FATF on actions taken to strengthen its AML/CTF framework.

FATF’s Evaluation: Re-ratings and Changes

The FATF’s detailed analysis of Belgium’s progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies from the 2015 mutual evaluation report reveals the following re-ratings and changes:

  • Recommendation 1 (Assessing risks & applying a risk-based approach, 14): Compliant
  • Recommendation 10 (Customer due diligence, 5): Compliant
  • Recommendation 12 (Politically exposed persons, 4): Compliant
  • Recommendation 16 (Wire transfers, 3): Compliant
  • Recommendation 17 (Reliance on third parties, 2): Compliant
  • Recommendation 18 (Internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries, 1): Compliant
  • Recommendation 19 (Higher-risk countries, 4): Compliant
  • Recommendation 26 (Regulation and supervision of financial institutions, 3): Largely Compliant
  • Recommendation 27 (Powers of supervisors, 3): Largely Compliant
  • Recommendation 28 (Regulation and supervision of Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions, 4): Compliant
  • Recommendation 33 (Statistics, 1): Compliant
  • Recommendation 35 (Sanctions, 2): Compliant

Furthermore, the FATF accepted the following changes:

  • Recommendation 5 (Effective implementation, 3): From “Largely Compliant” to “Compliant”
  • Recommendation 8 (Differences between AML and CFT requirements, 2): From “Partially Compliant” to “Largely Compliant”

However, Belgium retained the following ratings:

  • Recommendation 7 (Transaction monitoring, 2): Partially Compliant
  • Recommendation 21 (Record keeping, 3): Compliant

Despite notable progress in enhancing compliance with Recommendations 6, 7, 13, 14, 23, 34, and 40, the FATF was not convinced that the improvements merited re-ratings.

Updating Requirements and Insufficient Progress

This report not only evaluates Belgium’s steps to meet the original FATF Recommendations but also assesses whether the country’s measures satisfy updated requirements. After considering new measures, the FATF concluded that the remaining Recommendations’ progress was insufficient.