Note to expats that this new status may make financial transactions between your home country and Cambodia more difficult.

Global watchdog to put Cambodia on its money-laundering watchlist
22 Feb 2019 04:52PM
JAKARTA: A global money-laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), will place Cambodia on its watchlist on Friday (Feb 22) because of concern it is highly vulnerable to money laundering, a high-level official with knowledge of the issue said.

The placing of Cambodia on the FATF's "grey list", to be announced in Paris, will likely curtail international financial, investment and trade flows to and from the Southeast Asian country.

The FATF is an inter-governmental organisation that underpins the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

A spokesman for Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance said he could not comment on the FATF issue and referred questions to the National Bank of Cambodia, which did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The expected listing comes as Cambodia faces the loss of preferential trade treatment from the European Union due to concerns over its human rights record.

Companies and individuals based in Cambodia could find it "tougher" to use the international financial system after the FATF move, said the senior official, who declined to be identified.

Cambodia's inclusion on the list follows an FATF “mutual evaluation report” on its policies to counter money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) conducted in 2017.

The report contained several damning findings and observations, including that no money-laundering case had ever been prosecuted in Cambodia.

Cambodia’s judicial system had “high levels of corruption”, the FATF said in the report, adding:

"Cambodia has made minimal use of financial intelligence in investigating ML/TF."

The Cambodian Financial Intelligence Unit did not supervise its booming casino and real estate sectors, long identified by organisations such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as highly exposed to money laundering by organised crime groups.

Cambodia had been removed from the FATF "grey list" in 2015, so the new listing would suggest it has been backsliding on efforts to counter money laundering.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... g-11279936

The downgrade is met with standard excuses and denial from the authorities.

‘Unfair’ to include Cambodia in money-laundering ‘grey list’
25 Feb, 2019
[Excerpts]
Cambodia's relisting in the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday is “unfair”, after the Kingdom met all requirements and was removed from it in 2015, said a source at the National Bank of Cambodia.

This is because the Kingdom was evaluated based on a new standard that came into force in 2013, the source said, even as it was undergoing a mutual evaluation process by representatives of the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).
“But the report was just adopted in 2017, and it is impossible to meet the latest standard within only one year. This is the problem … it is a very long process and the government was busy liaising with the APG on all the requirements."

“It’s a lot of work and we just did not have enough time or manpower to meet the new standards. It’s not really a condemnation of the Kingdom but a technicality, which we have every intention to address,” the source said.

The FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 to tackle money laundering and financing of terrorism. The APG is made up of 41 member states, including Cambodia.

On why the Kingdom was again placed on the grey list this month, the source said it was due mainly to the lack of time to meet the 2013 standard, which included 40 recommendations and 11 immediate outcomes. Of the outcomes, Cambodia scored “low” on seven items.
...

Economic analyst Chan Sophal said most money laundering in Cambodia occurred in the real estate and gambling sectors and was usually done in cash.

“I think it will affect the reputation of Cambodia. It could affect some investors who comply strictly with the rules and make them think twice before investing here.”

However, he said some investors would not be overly concerned.

“[FATF] wants authorities in charge of monetary supervision to have clear measures to tackle money laundering. This work is carried out in cooperation with international groups and not Cambodia alone because it is linked to international [crime],” he said.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan said the move to put Cambodia on the grey list came from discrimination against Chinese investors in the Kingdom.

“It is not fair on Cambodia that they are concerned so much with money laundering that they put the Kingdom on the grey list."
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -grey-list

See also:
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... rty-market

According to this article, the recent growth in the casino industry, particularly in Sihanoukville, has largely influenced the FATF decision to place Cambodia on the watch list.

Cambodia ends up on money laundering, terrorism watch list
BY Derek Tonin ON February 25, 2019
If there’s a list that any country rather avoid, the one for states with anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) deficiencies is certainly one of them. Unfortunately for Cambodia, it’s the newest member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list for just that, as announced by the group on February 22.

Cambodia ends up on money laundering, terrorism watch listThe group declared in their latest announcement this segment regarding Cambodia:
“FATF has identified Cambodia as a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. The country has developed an action plan with the FATF to address the most serious deficiencies. The FATF welcomed the high level political commitment of Cambodia to its action plan.”

A big factor in the South East Asian country joining the list is the growing number of casinos there. Cambodia has more than 100 brick and mortar operators, and casinos are seen as a high-risk target for money laundering.

It should be noted though that Cambodia only joins the list as a monitored country, with no call for action. In comparison, Iran and North Korea sit on the list with open calls for action for them to change their ways. Furthermore, this list changes often, with countries joining and falling off every year, as they address the concerns the FATF raises.

In 2008, the FATF published a guide for a “Risk-Based Approach for Casinos” to help mitigate this risk. Cambodia seems to be following that guide, which the FATF commends them for, but it hasn’t kept the country off the new list.

The country, and particularly Sihanoukville, has been a hotbed for Chinese facing casinos, in part because of lax regulations. As a result of the very liberal rule-set, there have been fears that money could be laundered through Cambodia.
https://calvinayre.com/2019/02/25/casin ... atch-list/