Croatia is the only EU country on the list of the international agency FATF. The reason is ineffective activities in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The international agency for combating money laundering, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has put Croatia, along with Cameroon and Vietnam, on the list of countries that should be monitored more closely.
The three countries are now among 23 countries “actively working with the FATF,” to address “strategic deficiencies in their systems to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” the FATF said in a statement in Paris.
Headquartered in the French capital, FATF is the main international body for combating and preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, and is attached to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Deterrent effect on investors
Croatia is the only member of the European Union that is on the list. According to the FATF, the government in Zagreb has promised to increase efforts in the sphere of preventing these forms of financial crime and launch a corresponding action plan. Inclusion in the so-called FATF gray list can mean a serious loss of the country’s image and have a deterrent effect on foreign investors.
Other countries on the list are, for example, Albania, Panama, Mali, South Africa or the United Arab Emirates.
There is also a deny list of countries marked as high risk. Currently, only three countries are on it: Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.
Problems in Germany too
Last summer, the FATF report confirmed that Germany also has deficits in the fight against money laundering. The major criticism was that it had not yet been given sufficient political importance.
International experts criticize the unexamined chaos regarding the responsibilities and flow of information between over 300 different offices, services and state bodies that deal with this topic in the country. There are serious deficiencies in monitoring cash transactions, the FATF said, and complained that German authorities were doing far too little to investigate the financial transactions of major crime syndicates and bring them to justice.
That’s why Germany is still a “paradise for those who want to launder money” and a popular European destination among Italian mobsters.
