Financial Crime World

Mongolia’s Progress in Implementing Financial Crime Regulations: APG Evaluation Report

Ulaanbaatar - The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) has released a report detailing Mongolia’s progress in enhancing its compliance with international financial crime regulations. This follow-up report, adopted in July 2022, highlights the strides Mongolia has made in addressing the technical compliance requirements of previous recommendations.

Background

  • Mongolia’s mutual evaluation report was first adopted in September 2017.
  • This latest report, the 5th follow-up report, examines the progress of Mongolia in addressing the recommendations currently being re-rated, focusing on technical compliance instead of effectiveness.

Mongolia’s Updated Ratings and Progress

The report outlines Mongolia’s updated ratings and progress with Recommendation R.1 through R.28. Among the changes, Mongolia requested and was granted re-ratings of R.15 and R.26 from Partially Compliant (PC) to Large Compliant (LC).

Re-rated Recommendations

Recommendation R.15: New Requirements for Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)

Mongolia’s progress in improving its technical compliance with FATF’s Recommendation 15 is significant. Following the adoption of their mutual evaluation report in 2017, Mongolia was rated Largely Compliant (LC) for R.15. In the latest report, Mongolia’s efforts to implement measures in response to the changes to the legal and operational framework have been recognized. The APG welcomes these steps and has accordingly re-rated R.15 from Partially Compliant (PC) to Large Compliant (LC).

Key Areas of Improvement and Challenges Ahead

The full report offers a detailed analysis of each re-rated recommendation and explains the progress Mongolia has made to address deficiencies in areas like customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and international cooperation. Additionally, the report highlights the key areas of improvement and the remaining challenges for Mongolia in its ongoing efforts to strengthen its financial crime prevention measures.

Achievements and Challenges

  • Mongolia has demonstrated significant improvements in implementing measures related to virtual assets and VASPs.
  • There are remaining challenges, particularly in the areas of customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and international cooperation.

Next Steps

Moving forward, Mongolia must continue its efforts to address these challenges and further strengthen its financial crime prevention measures in line with international best practices.