Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona said the recent Marawi bombing in Mindanao may cause a bit of concern for the Philippines’ effort to exit the grey list of the global dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“The problem is the Marawi bombing. It makes them [FATF] more demanding. Because they were also looking at terrorist financing. So the bombing implies there was some terrorist financing [in the Philippines],” Remolona said Wednesday evening.
“But the other side of the story is, the bombing was in retaliation of our being more strict on terrorist financing. So it may also show that we’re trying harder,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund urged the Philippines in October to intensify its efforts to be taken out of the gray list.
IMF sees the need for the Philippines to ramp up initiatives to strengthen its anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.
“Efforts to be removed from the FATF gray list should be stepped up and would benefit from the publication of a credible timeline to address outstanding AML/CFT issues,” the IMF said.
Remolona said local authorities were doing everything they can to show the country is making progress in all the areas of concern.