By AML Intelligence Correspondents
FATF today (Friday) removed Turkey from its grey list of enhanced monitored countries. – in a boost to the country’s economic turnaround plan.
Turkey was downgraded to the “grey list” in 2021 on concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing. The latest move came after an FATF team held meetings with Turkish authorities to assess progress in addressing those concerns.
Turkey has made “significant progress” in improving its regime of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, and is “no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process”, the Paris-based body said in a statement.
“With this development, international investors’ confidence in our country’s financial system has become even stronger,” Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on the social media platform X.
“The decision will have extremely positive consequences for both our financial sector and our real sector,” he said.
There was little immediate sign of a market reaction to the move, which was widely expected. The lira was slightly weaker at 32.9340 against the dollar.
There are about two dozen nations that are on the grey list and considered risky by FATF, a body that groups countries from the United States to China to tackle financial crime. In February, it removed the United Arab Emirates from the list.
FATF said in February that Turkey “has substantially completed its action plan” and warranted an on-site assessment. It held talks in Turkey last month to evaluate the country’s actions against money laundering and illegal financing.
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