Troubled Myanmar may return to financial crime watchdog’s blacklist

SOMETIME in October, the Paris-based global watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is expected to decide whether to put Myanmar on its blacklist, a move that would put the South-east Asian nation in the same financial camp as Iran and North Korea.

It is also possible that the FATF – a 62-member body set up by the Group of Seven in 1989 to fight threats to the global financial system such as money laundering and terrorist financing – could postpone the decision until February next year, when it holds its plenary session.

The current FATF president is Singaporean T Raja Kumar, a former senior police officer holding the rank of Deputy Commissioner.