An agency fighting "hot" money said today sanctions would be imposed on the Philippines and the island of Nauru if they had not enacted money laundering laws by the end of September.
But the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), backed by over 30 industrialised nations, said Russia had been taken off its sanctions hit-list after it adopted laws to crack down on the recycling of money from crime and evasion.
New anti-money laundering laws in the Pacific atoll of Nauru were not enough, the FATF said following a week-long meeting. The Philippines had yet to deliver on long-awaited reforms, it said.
Sanctions outlined in June included denying further licences to banks from outcast countries to operate in FATF member states, and giving advice to the business community of FATF countries that operating in culprit nations was risky.