http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/mutualevaluations/documents/mer-china-2019.html

Paris, 17 April 2019– The FATF today published a report on the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system of the People’s Republic of China (China). 

The International Monetary Fund staff-led assessment comprehensively reviews the effectiveness of China’s measures and their level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations.   The FATF adopted this report at its February 2019 Plenary meeting.

Overall, China has a strong understanding of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks it faces, but it should focus more on the laundering of proceeds of crime and increase the range of sources used for its national risk assessment.

Financial institutions and non-financial institutions have an insufficient understanding of the risks they face, and while the People’s Bank of China has a good understanding of how its financial institutions could be abused by criminals and terrorists, it has little to no understanding of the risks facing non-financial businesses and professions.

Hiding the persons who ultimately own or control a legal entity is facilitated by fundamental legal shortcomings and effectiveness issues. This deficiency also notably affects efforts to address corruption.

China is committed to pursuing and confiscating criminal proceeds through both criminal and administrative proceedings, but it should review the functioning and operational independence of its financial intelligence unit and improve the use of financial intelligence to drive money-laundering investigations.

China should extend preventive measures, including reporting of suspicious transactions, to designated non-financial businesses and professions and online lending institutions and introduce requirements on domestic politically exposed persons.

Targeted financial sanctions related to both terrorist financing and proliferation financing is poor, and China should fundamentally strengthen its legal framework and the implementation of these United Nations-mandated sanction regimes and work with financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions to achieve implementation without delay.