On 4 July 2022, HM Treasury published an updated advisory notice on money laundering and terrorist financing controls in high-risk third countries.
The advisory notice explains that the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (High-Risk Countries) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations will come into force on 11 July 2022. These Regulations will substitute the list of high-risk third countries specified in Schedule 3ZA of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs 2017) with a new list. That list will continue to mirror both the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘Jurisdictions under increased monitoring’ and ‘High-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action’ documents. Schedule 3ZA of the MLRs 2017 consolidates these lists into a single list of countries, as all countries included in either of the FATF’s lists have significant shortcomings in their anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing controls.