The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, an inter-governmental grouping, has removed Indonesia, the Cook Islands and...

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, an inter-governmental grouping, has removed Indonesia, the Cook Islands and the Philippines from its backlist. This leaves just Burma, Nauru and Nigeria on the list. Analysts say FATF’s role is now in doubt. “The International Monetary Fund has taken over inspections now and the FATF is relegated to coming out with ‘international high-level standards’,” said an expert in money laundering who did not want to be named. The organisation has also had to move to new—and supposedly very cramped—offices in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development. FATF was set after the G-7 Summit held in Paris in 1989. But its role has increasingly been undermined by bilateral efforts to stop money laundering, particularly from the US and its Patriot Act.