HONG KONG, (AFP) — A global taskforce said yesterday it had dashed the hopes of several countries pleading to be removed from a blacklist of 19 countries accused of allowing money laundering.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) also announced that the first phase of self-assessment exercises for its members to comply with a set of eight special recommendations to choke off terrorist funding would be completed by June.

“The FATF welcomed the additional progress made by a number of the 19 jurisdictions on the list,” said Clarie Lo, current president of the FATF.

But she added the progress had not been enough for them to be removed from the list during three days of talks in Hong Kong.

The taskforce had been especially pleased with progress made in Hungary and St Kitts and Nevis which have passed special laws to close loopholes allowing money-laundering, said Lo, Hong Kong’s narcotic commissioner.

They would be “asked to submit implementation plans to enable the FATF to evaluate the actual implementation of the legislative changes”.

But several other countries on the list of “non-cooperative countries and territories” including the tiny central Pacific state Nauru and Philippines, needed to make a greater effort.

However, it also listed St Kitts and Nevis among three English-speaking Caribbean islands among the “non-cooperative”. The others are Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Other countries on that list are: the Cook Islands, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Niue, the Philippines, Russia and Ukraine.

Lo said that in the case of Nauru: “Despite the enactment of new legislation on December 6, 2001, Nauru has not adequately addressed the deficiencies found in the process of licensing, regulation and supervision of its banking sector.

“FATF members will therefore continue to apply counter measures against this jurisdiction.”

In December, the Paris-based FATF agreed for the first time in its 12-year history to take the blacklist a step further and institute “counter measures” against Nauru.

Nauru operates as an offshore tax haven and stands accused of laundering around $70 billion (77 billion euros) of Russian mafia money.

Under the sanctions, the world’s banks are required to stringently monitor all transactions with Nauru and warn clients that it is deemed to be a money-laundering haven.

The FATF has asked the world’s banks and financial institutions to pay particular attention to any transactions with banks in those 19 listed non-cooperative countries.

Despite the efforts of Philippine Senator Francis Pangilinan requesting the taskforce fast-track his country’s case because its economic recovery was endangered by being on the blacklist, the FATF turned down his request.

Manila swiftly passed a law in September last year to curb money-laundering after the FATF — the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s watchdog on money matters — threatened to impose economic sanctions unless it outlawed the trafficking of dirty money.

“The FATF noted that the Philippines had enacted the anti-terrorist act in September 2001 … however, there are still some deficiencies that need to be remedied before we can consider any form of delisting,” Lo said.

Representatives from 56 jurisdictions and 16 international organisations participated in the special forum talks to review and draw up guidelines for financial institutions to stem the flow of funds to terrorist organisations.

The closed-door meeting was the first since the FATF adopted an action plan to combat terrorist financing in an extraordinary plenary meeting held in Washington in October.

The FATF’s 29 members include most of the world’s developed countries, as well as the European Commission and the Gulf Co-operation Council.