Mutual Evaluation of the United Kingdom - Follow-Up Report

The FATF has released the Follow-Up Report to the Mutual Evaluation Report of the United Kingdom, which was adopted in June 2007.  In October 2009, the FATF recognised that the United Kingdom had made significant progress in addressing deficiencies identified in that report, decided that the country should be removed from the regular follow-up process and agreed that it should now report on any further improvements its Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system on a biennial basis.

In its 2007 mutual evaluation, the United Kingdom was rated partially compliant (PC) on Recommendation 5 (customer due diligence), and as a result, it was placed in the regular follow-up process.  The Follow-Up Report agreed by the FATF in October 2009 and published here finds that the United Kingdom has taken sufficient action in remedying the identified deficiencies for Recommendation 5, and that all the Core and Key Recommendations are at a level essentially equivalent to compliant (C) or largely compliant (LC).

The decision by the FATF to remove a country from the regular follow-up process is based on updated procedures agreed in October 2008.  These procedures require a country to have taken sufficient and effective action to address the compliance levels of Recommendations 1, 3-5, 10, 13, 23, 26, 35-36, and 40 and Special Recommendations I – V (key and core Recommendations), where those Recommendations were previously rated as partially compliant or non-compliant. “Sufficient and effective action” is defined as a level essentially equivalent to compliant (C) or largely compliant (LC). (See paragraphs 39c and 40 of  Third Round of AML/CFT Evaluations Process and Procedures for a detailed explanation..

Mutual evaluation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland