The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for anti-money laundering standards, has taken Bulgaria, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Monaco off its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
The decision was made at its latest plenary meetings and is likely to reshape cross-border compliance priorities for banks.
According to the FATF, each of the four nations has made meaningful headway in fixing the strategic weaknesses in their frameworks for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. These weaknesses had first been flagged during their mutual evaluations.
Vietnam did not secure the same outcome. The watchdog kept the country under increased monitoring because its reforms have moved slowly. The FATF warned it would weigh further action if Vietnam fails to deliver concrete progress before its next plenary, scheduled for 22 to 26 February.
Grey list status carries no formal sanctions. However, banks and other financial institutions usually apply tighter checks to transactions linked to listed countries, which can restrict investment and the movement of capital.
At the more severe end of the scale, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea stay on the FATF black list because of serious strategic failings in tackling money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. Blacklisting is the strongest designation the FATF issues. It can lead to frozen investments, sharply higher compliance costs and banks being effectively shut out of the international financial system.
North Korean hackers have been held responsible for a $6.3bn theft from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, an attack that may rank as the largest ever.
Napier AI chief data scientist Dr Janet Bastiman said, “The FATF’s removal of Monaco, Bulgaria, Ivory Coast and the DRC will result in banks reopening relationships they cut when those countries were listed, bringing more cross-border traffic to monitor, with much of it from jurisdictions with a limited record of effective AML controls.”
She added, “Criminal money typically flows through weak points, and as one route is closed, it moves on to the next, whether that is a country still on the grey list like Vietnam or the scam networks operating out of Myanmar. The Napier AI / AML Index shows that $5.09 trillion is laundered globally each year and very little of it stays on one route for long. Money laundering trends appear in suspicious transaction data before a country’s rating changes, so banks relying on a country-risk rating alone will be exposed.”
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
