The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Kuwait and Papua New Guinea to its “grey list” of countries under closer monitoring, saying both have pledged to fix weaknesses in their safeguards against illicit money flows. 

The global financial crime watchdog directed Papua New Guinea to improve its understanding of money-laundering risks, proactively work with other governments to trace criminal assets abroad, improve its risk-based supervision of banks and other financial institutions, and increase its related prosecutions and asset freezes, among other steps. 

Kuwait agreed to work with real-estate agents and others to enhance reporting of suspicious transactions in its property sector, take steps to ensure that data in its beneficial-ownership registry is accurate, and increase the number of investigations and prosecutions it pursues in relation to cross-border transfers of cash and bearer instruments. 

The grey list now covers 22 jurisdictions, including Kuwait and Papua New Guinea, FATF said. The organization noted that Haiti and Syria deferred providing updated progress reports for this round.

In its latest plenary meeting, FATF also approved a paper on cyber-enabled fraud and a report on mitigating risks tied to offshore Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). The organization did not state when the papers will be published. 

Plenary attendees separately appointed Giles Thomson of the United Kingdom to serve as the FATF president from July 2026 through June 2028.

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