"South Korea Must Impose Anti-Money Laundering Obligations on Lawyers and Accountants"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] It has been pointed out that South Korea should impose anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) obligations on lawyers, accountants, and others.

According to the Financial Services Commission on the 17th, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced an evaluation result containing this content the day before.

FATF is an international organization that establishes international standards for joint responses to money laundering and terrorist financing and evaluates the implementation status of each country, with 39 member countries participating.

In this 4th round mutual evaluation, FATF rated South Korea as part of the "enhanced follow-up" group. The second tier included 17 countries such as the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia, besides South Korea. South Korea ranked among the top within the second tier alongside Switzerland and Singapore.

FATF evaluated that South Korea is generally producing positive results with solid legal and institutional measures. It effectively utilizes financial information for anti-money laundering and has good outcomes in recovering criminal proceeds, especially assessing the risk of terrorism and terrorist financing as low.

However, FATF pointed out that South Korea needs to impose AML/CFT obligations on designated non-financial businesses and professions such as lawyers and accountants and strengthen AML/CFT supervisory functions over financial companies. It also highlighted the need to strengthen investigation and prosecution of money laundering crimes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.