Results of the 17th APG Annual Plenary session, July 14-18, 2014, Macau, China

At the invitation of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) the EAG Secretariat representatives attended events of the 17th APG Annual Plenary week. The event was held from July 14 to 18, 2014 in Macau (China).

During the meeting of the Working Group on Typologies the team leaders provided information on the status of current typological researches. At the moment there are five research projects exist. Due to the large amount of routine workload, and the lack of additional resources the decision to extend three typological researches was taken by the Plenary session.

The Working Group supported the proposal to extend the terms of typological research:

• "The Return of the proceeds of corruption in the Pacific region" - until April 2015
• "Fraud and Money Laundering in the Pacific region" - until July 2015
• "The risks of money laundering in offshore financial centers" - until July 2016

Also, the delegates took a decision not to initiate any new studies in 2014-2015 and to focus on existing projects. The main reason for this is the lack of resources in preparation for the 3rd round of the APG Mutual Evaluations.

At the last APG Annual Plenary session in July 2013 it was decided to start a joint APG/FATF typological study "The risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as vulnerabilities in the handling of gold - production, markets and trade." Eurasian Group had joined this project and provided its member states and observers responses to the questionnaires. APG Secretariat reported the synthesis of the responses of the survey participants (41 responses received), as well as a questionnaire for the private sector was developed and sent out then (10 responses received already). The draft report will be published and submitted to the Annual APG Typological workshop in Thailand in November 2014.

The information on the informal ARIN-AP network was provided to the Plenary session. ARIN-AP main efforts are directed at the search and return of assets in the Asia and Pacific region, also, the formation of a center of expertise dealing with the proceeds of crime. Currently, work to establish contact points which will facilitate the exchange of information and best practices is underway. 12 countries and 4 international organizations are members of this organization.

During the meetings with the APG Secretariat representatives some possible areas of cooperation were discussed, including further participation in the ongoing typology studies, as well as the organization of joint workshops and AML/CFT best practices exchange. During the Plenary session APG Secretariat reported on the successful completion of APG/EAG joint workshop in Ulaan- Baatar, Mongolia, and expressed its intention to continue such cooperation with the EAG. It was also noted the active participation of the EAG in efforts to improve the national AML/CFT system of Mongolia, which was successfully emerged from the so-called "gray" list of FATF in June, 2014.