In its statement of February 25, 2009, the FATF informs about still remaining deficiencies in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime in Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, São Tomé and Príncipe. The statement stresses in particular the referring risks from Iran and Uzbekistan.
Concerning Iran, the FATF also urges jurisdictions to protect against correspondent bank relationships being used to bypass or evade counter measures and risk mitigation practices and to take into account ML/FT risks when considering requests by Iranian financial institutions to open branches and subsidiaries.
FINMA calls on the financial intermediaries to take the statement of the FATF concerning the mentioned countries into account when evaluating the AML and terrorist finance risks according to the Swiss Money Laundering Law (SR 955.0) and its executive ordinances.
Further, FINMA calls on the banks to take the statement of the FATF concerning Iran into account when applying art. 17 GwV- FINMA 1 (SR 955.022) to their correspondent bank relationships with foreign financial institutions.
FINMA also urges the self regulating organizations pursuant to the Swiss Money Laundering Law to take the statement of the FATF into account when considering requests by Iranian financial institutions to open new branches or subsidiaries in Switzerland.
For details please consult the FATF statement on the FATF Homepage http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/18/28/42242615.pdf
Please also take note of the Moneyval (regional organization of the FATF gathering numerous members of the Council of Europe) communications concerning Aserbaijan:
http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/41/41/42406214.pdf and
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/moneyval/About/MONEYVALstatement-AZ_en.pdf
Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA
