Nepal still on FATF greylist

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) kept Nepal and 17 other countries on its greylist and reviewed their progress in addressing strategic deficiencies in combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.

These countries were placed on the list due to strategic deficiencies in their financial systems and have 24 months to implement necessary legal, policy and structural reforms.

The global watchdog against terror financing reviewed the progress made by Nepal, Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lao PDR, Monaco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Vietnam.

The country must address these deficiencies, which include failures to fully implement necessary legal, policy and structural reforms, within two years to avoid potential international obstacles and sanctions.

The grey listing negatively impacts Nepal’s economy, financial sector and international relations. Meanwhile, Bolivia, Haiti, Lebanon, the Virgin Islands (UK) and Yemen chose to defer reporting on their efforts, the FATF said in an official statement on Friday. Since February 2025, Nepal has made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering /countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.