The Financial Action Task Force, the world's anti-money-laundering standard-setter, has taken Iceland and Mongolia off its list of 'jurisdictions under increased monitoring,' commonly known as the 'grey list.'

Jurisdictions on the grey list are - or should be - working with the FATF to remedy the strategic deficiencies that it has spotted in their AML regimes. When the FATF places a jurisdiction on that list, it does so on the understanding that the country has promised to mend its ways swiftly and within an agreed time-frame. The FATF does not call for the application of extra background checking or "enhanced due diligence" to these jurisdictions (or to customers who emerge from them), but encourages its member-countries to take the deficiencies of countries on the grey list that it outlines on its website into account when they analyse their risks.

The FATF made its announcement at a so-called plenary meeting on 23 October. On the grey list are: Albania; The Bahamas; Barbados; Botswana; Cambodia; Ghana; Jamaica; Mauritius; Myanmar; Nicaragua; Pakistan; Panama; Syria; Uganda; Yemen; and Zimbabwe.