The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held a plenary session on the 27^th October 2023 which discussed, amongst other matters, Gibraltar’s active approach in working toward being removed from the FATF grey list, Gibraltar has found itself on the grey list since 17 June 2022.

During the plenary session, Gibraltar and the United Arab Emirates were approved for ‘exit inspections’ meaning that Gibraltar should at the next plenary session to be held in February 2024 be removed from the grey list.   Onsite inspections in Gibraltar will now take place in the coming months, this was confirmed by HMGoG in their press release 737/2023.

The FATF were satisfied that Gibraltar had taken the necessary steps to address the two remaining points which were outstanding and that they had met their ‘action plan’ and furthermore had adequately shown commitment to the Moneyval process, the two outstanding points raised by the FATF were (1) pursuing regulatory sanctions and (2) pursuing final confiscation judgments in the Supreme Court.

The same plenary session held in Paris, saw Albania, the Cayman Islands, Panama and Jordan removed from the grey list following their own internal process, which saw them satisfy the to-do lists set by the financial watchdog.  The same plenary session saw Bulgaria being moved into the grey list.

The news which was announced by HMGoG through the newly elected Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham KC will no doubt be welcomed with open arms by both HMGoG and the private sector in Gibraltar.