Join the dots - the Pacific campaign

In the very recent past, the Pacific islands were a byword for non-existent or at best wholly ineffectual money laundering controls. Undoubtedly serious concerns persist but there are also signs of change as efforts by Australia, New Zealand and the regional AML bodies to assist the smaller jurisdictions start to gain traction. Symon Ross reports from Auckland.

With no Pacific countries now on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, international monitors could be forgiven for focusing their attentions elsewhere. Yet Australia’s anti-money laundering regulator and financial intelligence unit (FIU) AUSTRAC and the US State Department remain worried that legislation brought in over the last five years is too often inactive, leaving some smaller island countries open to exploitation by both organised gangs and local opportunist criminals.