The US and a mix of European countries are lobbying Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove the UAE from its money-laundering grey list, according to a report by Politico.
FATF is set to give a press conference this afternoon (23 June) to update its grey and black lists, with the UAE and other countries including the Cayman Islands hoping for positive news.
Experts with FATF's International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG), had recently raised concerns about the reliability of information the UAE provided as part of its efforts to get off the grey list. But representatives from Germany, Italy, Greece, and the US refused to address the issue, Politico said.
Michiel Vervloet, a representative of the panel from Belgium, raised concerns in May over what Politico described as "a push to accelerate UAE's removal from the grey list despite its lack of tangible progress in rooting out money laundering".
Vervloet's objections were dismissed, according to Politico. Now, Roberto Angeletti, a Bank of Italy official who serves as the ICRG's co-chair, plans to schedule a visit to the UAE, in what the report described as a final step in the evaluation process that signals a country will be removed from the grey list.
