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Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (also known as the APG or APGML) is the FATF-style regional body for the
Asia/Pacific region. It is an autonomous international organisation founded in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand. The APG consists of 41
member jurisdictions and a number of observer jurisdictions and international and regional observer organisations. Membership in the
APG is not open to individual persons. It is available only for jurisdictions with a presence in the Asia/Pacific region. Membership does
not however imply or suggest sovereignty in status.

The APG has two Co-Chairs - one permanent and one two-year term rotating Co-Chair. The permanent Co-Chair is Australia (held by
Commissioner Tony Negus, the Commissioner of Australian Federal Police) and the current rotating Co-Chair is India (held by Dr Rajan
Katoch Director of Enforcement in the Enforcement Directorate of the Ministry of Finance of India). The past rotating Co-Chair is Director
Ong Hian Sun of Singapore (from 2008 to 2010).

The APG Secretariat is located Sydney, Australia. The Executive Secretary is Dr Gordon Hook, a lawyer who has practiced private and
public law in both Canada and New Zealand.

Jurisdictions that join the APG commit to implement the international standards to combat money laundering and the financing of
terrorism, in particular the Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing
(http://www.fatf-gafi.org/topics/fatfrecommendations/documents/fatfrecommendations2012.html) of the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF). These standards are referred to as the international standards for Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism
(AML/CFT).

Contents
1 Role
2 APG Members
3 APG Observers
4 FATF-style regional bodies
5 External links

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Role
The APG has a number of roles as stated in its strategic plan including:

assessing APG members' compliance with the international AML/CFT standards through a programme of mutual evaluations;
supporting implementation of the international AML/CFT standards, including coordinating multi-lateral and bi-lateral technical
assistance and training with donor countries and agencies;
conducting research and analysis into money laundering and terrorist financing trends and methods; and
participating in, and co-operating with, the international AML/CFT network and contributing to global policy development of the
standards through associate membership in the FATF.

The APG conducts mutual evaluations of its members to determine whether they comply, or to what extent they comply, with their
obligations to implement the global anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing standards. Some of these reports are conducted
jointly with other AML/CFT bodies such as the FATF, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Offshore Group of
Banking Supervisors (http://www.ogbs.net/) . The final reports are considered in the APG plenary at the annual meeting and upon
completion of that examination are published on the APG website in accordance with internal policy.

The APG also has a robust technical assistance and training function in the region. The APG was the first FATF-Style Regional Body to
have formal institutionalised processes for technical assistance and training coordination relating to AML/CFT issues. Each year a
number of missions are conducted in the region to assess technical and training needs of various jurisdictions after which the Secretariat
coordinates the delivery of assistance from multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors. The APG recently developed a "Strategic Implementation
Planning Framework" which assists countries to prioritize and implement the complex recommendations made in APG mutual evaluation
reports. The framework was developed jointly with the World Bank.

The APG has a Typologies Working Group which examines trends in money laundering and terrorist financing in the Asia-Pacific region.
The reports of this Working Group are published on the APG website (http://www.apgml.org) and provide sanitised case studies from
APG members which in turn assist policy makers and law enforcement agencies in understanding how to target resources to prevent
these crimes both at the domestic and the international level. Some of the reports published by the APG include money laundering
trends in the gambling and casino sector; the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing through alternative remittance systems
and underground banking; and trade-based money laundering.

The APG is also an Associate Member of the Financial Action Task Force which permits individual APG members to attend FATF
meetings as APG delegates and intervene on policy and operational issues. The APG also conducts joint meetings with the FATF and
other FATF-style bodies around the world.

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APG Members
Members are committed to implementing and enforcing the global AML/CFT standards established by the FATF. Effective July 2011, the
41 members of the APG are:

Afghanistan
Australia
Bangladesh
Bhutan, Kingdom of
Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
Canada
China, People's Republic of
Cook Islands
Fiji
Hong Kong, China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Korea, Republic of
Lao PDR
Macau, China
Malaysia
Maldives
Marshall Islands
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
Nepal
New Zealand
Niue
Pakistan
Palau
Papua New Guinea

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Philippines
Samoa
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka
Chinese Taipei
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Tonga
United States of America
Vanuatu
Vietnam

Of these, 10 are also members of the FATF: Australia; Canada; India; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Japan; the
Republic of Korea; New Zealand; Singapore; and the United States of America.

There are now very few jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region which do not participate with the APG as members or observers (including
North Korea and some independent jurisdictions in the Pacific region such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and Northern Marianas Islands). French
Polynesia and New Caledonia as well as the Wallis and Futuna Islands are dependencies of France and included within the French
AML/CFT system.

APG Observers
APG observers include potential members of the APG and jurisdictions and organisations that cooperate with the APG to support
regional efforts to implement the international standards for AML/CFT.

The following jurisdictions are observers in the APG:

France
Germany
United Kingdom
Russian Federation
Federated States of Micronesia

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The following international and regional organisations are observers in the APG:

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia/Pacific (http://www.oecd.org/pages
/0,2966,en_34982156_34982385_1_1_1_1_1,00.html)
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Secretariat)
Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) (http://www.cfatf-gafic.org/)
Commonwealth Secretariat
Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (Egmont)
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
Grupo de Acción Financiera de Sudamérica (GAFISUD) (http://www.gafisud.org/)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Interpol
Middle East & North Africa FATF (MENAFATF) (http://www.menafatf.org/)
Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL) (http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring
/moneyval/)
Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) (http://www.ocosec.org/)
Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors (OGBS) (http://www.ogbs.net/)
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS)
Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC) (http://www.pftac.org/)
United Nations
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
World Bank
World Customs Organization (WCO)
Eurasian Group (http://www.eurasiangroup.org/) (EAG)
Eastern and South African Anti-Money Laundering Group (http://www.esaamlg.org/) (ESAAMLG)
Groupe Inter-Gouvernemental d’Action Contre le Blanchiment de l'Argent en Afrique (http://www.giaba.org/) (GIABA)

FATF-style regional bodies

The APG is one of a number of FATF-style regional bodies which have equivalent roles to the APG. FATF-style regional bodies include:

CFATF (http://www.cfatf.org/) (the Caribbean)

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EAG (http://www.eurasiangroup.org/) (Central Asia)

ESAAMLG (http://www.esaamlg.org/) (Eastern and Southern Africa)

GAFISUD (http://www.gafisud.org/) (South America)

GIABA (http://www.giaba-westafrica.org/) (West Africa)

MENAFATF (http://www.menafatf.org/) (Middle East and North Africa)

Moneyval (http://www.coe.int/moneyval) (Europe)

External links
Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (http://www.apgml.org/)
Financial Action Task Force (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/pages/0,2987,en_32250379_32235720_1_1_1_1_1,00.html)

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Categories: Organizations established in 1997

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