On 22 August 2023, the European Commission adopted a Commission Delegated Regulation amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 to add Cameroon and Vietnam to the list of high-risk third countries.
Article 9(2) of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/849) (MLD4) empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to identify ‘high-risk’ third country jurisdictions, which have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes that pose significant threats to the EU financial system. It adopted Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 to set out a list of those high-risk third countries.
The Commission now considers that Cameroon and Vietnam have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes. It has also taken into account the fact that these countries were identified in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) list of ‘Jurisdictions under increased monitoring’ in June 2023. On that basis, it has decided to add these countries to the list of high-risk third countries in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675.