Saudi misses out on joining anti-illicit funding body for now | Reuters

Saudi misses out on joining anti-illicit funding body for now | Reuters:

Saudi Arabia has missed out on gaining full membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after the global body dedicated to fighting illicit money flows found the kingdom fell short in combating money laundering and terror financing.

The decision by the 37-member inter-governmental body is a setback for Saudi at a time when it is striving to bolster its international reputation in order to encourage foreign investors to participate in its huge transformation plan and improve financial ties for its banks.

But after undergoing a process called “mutual evaluation”, the kingdom was found to have a low or moderate level of effectiveness for 7 of the 11 criteria it was assessed on for anti-money laundering and counter terror financing, a FATF spokeswoman told Reuters.