New Commission Delegated Regulation on the EU list of high-risk third countries under MLD4

On 21^st of February 2022,  the European Commission has published in its official journal (‘OJ’) the revised list of High-Risk Third Countries. The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/229 (‘the Delegated Regulation’), amends Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 on the list of high-risk third countries with strategic anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) deficiencies under the Fourth Money Laundering Directive ((EU) 2015/849) (MLD4).

The Delegated Regulation makes the following changes to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675:

• Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Morocco, Senegal, Haiti, the Philippines, South Sudan, Jordan and Mali are added to the list of third countries that are identified as having strategic AML and CTF deficiencies.
• Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, the Bahamas and Iraq are removed from the list of countries identified as not having strategic AML and CTF deficiencies. The Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana, Iraq and Mauritius have strengthened the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regime.

Therefore, in the Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675, the table under point ‘I. High-risk third countries which have provided a written high-level political commitment to address the identified deficiencies and have developed an action plan with FATF’ is replaced by the following:

The Delegated Regulation enters into force twenty (20) days following its publication in the OJ (i.e., 13 March 2022).

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