Financial Crime World

Title: Samoa’s Progress in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: Insights from the 2015 APG Evaluation Report

Overview

The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), an international organization dedicated to promoting effective implementation and enforcement of international standards against money laundering and terrorist financing, has assessed Samoa’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) measures through its 2015 evaluation report. Here’s a summary of the findings.

Key Findings

  1. Substantial progress: Samoa has achieved substantial progress since its 2006 mutual evaluation, with significant improvements in its overall levels of technical compliance with the FATF Standards. However, there are still crucial advancements needed, particularly concerning the criminalization and prevention of AML, CFT, and proliferation financing.

  2. Adequate risk assessment: Samoa possesses a decent understanding of its money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks, but it could benefit from a more extensive risk assessment of proceeds-generating crimes and their associated risks, specifically in relation to its offshore sector and the new casino sector.

  3. Effective international cooperation: Samoa demonstrates a strong commitment to providing international assistance, as shown in its international agreements regarding mutual assistance. The country prioritizes all international requests and processes them accordingly, despite resource limitations.

Areas for Improvement

Technical Compliance

  1. Supervision: Additional efforts are needed to enhance Samoa’s supervision of financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses or professions (DNFBPs), to ensure adequate understanding and implementation of AML and CFT measures.

  2. Use of financial intelligence: Although Samoa has established a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the effectiveness of its use in analyzing and disseminating reports to assist investigations needs strengthening.

  3. ML investigation and prosecution: More efforts are necessary to increase the number and success rate of ML investigations, leading to effective prosecutions and convictions.

Proliferation financing

Samoa requires further progress to effectively address proliferation financing risks, particularly concerning the import and export of military items. Enhanced measures such as effective licensing and enforcement mechanisms are recommended.

Samoa’s legislative framework must be further strengthened to effectively implement and enforce ML, CFT, and proliferation financing measures, ensuring full compliance with pertinent international standards.

Conclusion

The 2015 APG evaluation report on Samoa offers valuable insights into the country’s current status in its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. It also highlights areas for improvement and provides recommendations to help Samoa further strengthen its AML and CFT system.