The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published the Mutual Evaluation Report of Hong Kong today (September 4), commending Hong Kong's efforts in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF).

     The Report, which assesses the compliance and effectiveness of Hong Kong's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regime against the international standards, confirms that Hong Kong has a strong legal foundation and effective system for combating ML/TF. The Report notes that the system is particularly effective in the areas of risk identification, law enforcement, asset recovery, counter-terrorist financing and international co-operation. Hong Kong's AML/CTF regime is assessed to be compliant and effective overall, making it the first jurisdiction in the Asia-Pacific region to have achieved an overall compliant result in the current round of FATF evaluation.  

     The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, said, "The Government welcomes the international community's recognition of Hong Kong's efforts in combating ML/TF. The Report reinforces our reputation as an international financial centre that is safe and clean for doing business."

     The FATF and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) jointly conduct mutual evaluation to assess member jurisdictions' AML/CTF regime against the international standards and publish reports on the outcomes. Comprising the major economies of the world, the FATF and the APG are inter-governmental organisations which oversee global efforts to combat ML/TF and monitor compliance of member jurisdictions through a peer review process. The mutual evaluation on Hong Kong, lasting for over a year, was undertaken by an assessment team comprising 10 experts from the two organisations. The Mutual Evaluation Report of Hong Kong was examined and adopted by the FATF membership at its June Plenary held in Orlando, the United States, and the APG membership at its August Plenary held in Canberra, Australia, before publication today at the FATF's website. 

     The Report can be accessed at www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/mer4/MER-Hong-Kong-2019.pdf.

Ends/Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Issued at HKT 17:23

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