FATF: Nigeria sneaks in under the NCCT wire - maybe
Nigeria has made a last ditch attempt to meet FATF demands. Will it be enough?
And is the FATF setting its members up for cash transaction reporting?
Nigeria has passed new legislation to try to stave off the counter-measures threatened by the Financial Action Task Force under its Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories programme.
Three piece of legislation were signed on 14th December, before the deadline expired on 15th December 2002.
The Financial Action Task Force is now considering that legislation before deciding on whether the sanctions should be applied.
The FATF will meet on 20th December to make its formal decision.
The Money Laundering (Amendment) Act 2002 was passed on 6 December but President Obansanjo raised three major objections to it: first was the hike in the customer identification threshold to USD50,000; second was to the language used which he said in one case was ambiguous and may be interpreted in such a way that the law did not apply in many cases where it should and a cash transaction reporting threshhold was increased significantly.
It is interesting that so many countries under the NCCT regime are in trouble about cash transaction reporting threshholds, when FATF members are not required to impose cash transaction reporting in their own systems.
Counter-money laundering strategists Silkscreen Consulting have suggested that this, and other FATF signs of late, may mean that the FATF is moving towards requiring cash transaction reporting in its members. This measure would receive some objection from some EU countries although EU finance ministers are being driven in broadly the same direction by Germany, UK and France.
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