IBRD Trust Funds - World Bank

Purpose

The project aims to support selected countries in the Indo-Pacific region, notably through the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), in adopting and enhancing risk-based anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and proliferation (AML/CFT) policies, laws and regulations in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations (Pillar 4 on Legislative and Judicial Assistance), and strengthen the institutional and operational capacity of agencies focused on financial crimes to ensure effective prevention, detection, and disruption of illicit financial flows related to criminality, terrorism and proliferation (Pillar 2 on Illicit Financial Flows). Selected countries were preliminarily identified based on: (i) opportunities to leverage existing engagements (APG, India, Cambodia and Vietnam); (ii) strategic AML/CFT deficiencies identified through the current round of APG mutual evaluations, reflected in prospective or current FATF “grey-listing” (Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam); and (iii) on their technical assistance needs, as reported by these countries at the APG plenary meeting of July 2023 (internal APG document).