Mongolia became a country rated as compliant or largely compliant on all 40 FATF recommendations

The 26th annual meeting of Asia-Pacific Group on money laundering (APG) was organized in Vancouver, Canada from July 9 to 14, 2023.

Mongolia's 6th Follow-up report was reviewed and approved during the meeting. In this regard, a working group consisting of representatives from member organizations of National council and Cooperation council was established on December 30, 2022, by the Decree No. A/379 of the Minister of the National Council and the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs. Subsequently, the working group took necessary actions, prepared, and successfully defended the report resulting in a compliant rating on FATF Recommendation 8.

Accordingly, Mongolia, along with Macao are the countries in the Asia-Pacific region to be fully compliant and assessed as "compliant" and "largely compliant" on all 40 FATF technical recommendations, including the updated Recommendation 15. This means it is confirmed internationally that Mongolia has created the legal framework, relevant requirements have been reflected in legislation, and regulatory environment has improved in accordance with the FATF 40 Recommendations.

Moreover, during the 26th APG annual meeting, a one-on-one meeting was held on technical assistance provided by international donor organizations to Mongolia in the field of combating money laundering and terrorism financing. At the meeting, international donor organizations highly appreciated the progress made by Mongolia and discussed the possibility of continuing to provide technical assistance in the future.

Mongolian team in charge of defending follow-up report led by B. Solongoo, Deputy Minister of Justice and Home Affairs, consists of representatives from the Bank of Mongolia, the Financial Information Unit, the Financial Regulatory Commission, the State General Prosecutor’s Office, the General Intelligence Agency, and the General Department of Taxation.

Participation in annual meetings allows officials to represent Mongolia on an international level, to receive timely information about new regulations, recommendations and standards issued globally, to enhance foreign cooperation, improve information exchange and learn from countries' experiences in the field of AML/CFT/CPF.

During the annual meeting, the Financial Information Unit of the Bank of Mongolia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Financial Information Unit of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and agreed to cooperate on the exchange of information.

Furthermore, a representative of the Financial Information Unit participated in the mutual evaluation team conducted by the APG in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and evaluated the implementation of the 40 FATF Recommendations. At this year's meeting, the mutual evaluation report was discussed and approved by APG member countries.

We would like to express our gratitude to the representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, the Bank of Mongolia, the Financial Information Unit, the Financial Regulatory Commission, the State General Prosecutor's Office, the General Intelligence Agency, the General Authority for State Registration, and the General Department of Taxation, who worked diligently to strengthen the system for combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, improved the evaluation of FATF's 40 Recommendations, and had a satisfactory technical implementation ratings within all recommendations.