Mutual Evaluation for Malaysia

Come April 2014, Malaysia as a country will undergo a "Mutual Evaluation" Assessment by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (or fondly known as APG).  This time around, the assessment will be based on the "New 40 Recommendations", an international standard set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The standard is to replace FATF's "40 Recommendations  + 9 Special Recommendations".  Basically the standard is categorised into seven groups:

1.  AML/CFT POLICIES AND COORDINATION covering:

•      Recommendation 1 (Assessing risks & applying a risk-based approach)
•      Recommendation 2 (National cooperation and coordination)

2.  MONEY LAUNDERING AND CONFISCATION covering:

•      Recommendation 3 (Money laundering offence)
•      Recommendation 4 (Confiscation and provisional measures)

3.  TERRORIST FINANCING AND FINANCING OF PROLIFERATION covering:

•     Recommendation 5 (Terrorist financing offence)
•     Recommendation 6 (Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism & terrorist financing)
•     Recommendation 7 (Targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation)
•     Recommendation 8 (Non-profit organisations)

4.   PREVENTIVE MEASURES covering:

•    Recommendation 9 (Financial Institutions secrecy laws) 
•    Recommendation 10 (Customer due diligence)
•    Recommendation 11 (Record keeping)
•    Recommendation 12 (Politically exposed persons)
•    Recommendation 13 (Correspondent banking)
•    Recommendation 14 (Money or value transfer services)
•    Recommendation 15 (New technologies)
•    Recommendation 16 (Wire transfers)
•    Recommendation 17 (Reliance on third parties)
•    Recommendation 18 (Internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries)
•    Recommendation 19 (Higher-risk countries)
•    Recommendation 20 (Reporting of suspicious transactions)
•    Recommendation 21 (Tipping-off and confidentiality)
•    Recommendation 22 (DNFBPs: Customer due diligence)
•    Recommendation 23 (DNFBPs: Other measures)

5.   TRANSPARENCY AND BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP covering:

•   Recommendation 24 (Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons)
•   Recommendation 25 (Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements)

 6.  POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF COMPETENT AUTHORITIES covering:

•  Recommendation 26 (Regulation and supervision of financial institutions)
•  Recommendation 27 (Powers of supervisors)
•  Recommendation 28 (Regulation and supervision of DNFBPs)
•  Recommendation 29 (Financial intelligence units)
•  Recommendation 30 (Responsibilities of law enforcement and investigative authorities)
•  Recommendation 31 (Powers of law enforcement and investigative authorities)
•  Recommendation 32 (Cash couriers)
•  Recommendation 33 (Statistics)
•  Recommendation 34 (Guidance and feedback)
•  Recommendation 35 (Sanctions)

7.   INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION covering:

•  Recommendation 36 (International instruments)
•  Recommendation 37 (Mutual legal assistance)
•  Recommendation 38 (Mutual legal assistance: freezing and confiscation)
•  Recommendation 39 (Extradition)
•  Recommendation 40 (Other forms of international cooperation)

SOURCE: The FATF Recommendations, February 2013