In recent days, the Minister of the Presidency, Sergio Alfaro, warned of the country’s risk of falling into the category of intensified monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The inclusion of Costa Rica in the list of “non-cooperative” countries would imply that the country failed to show that it made substantial changes in its legislation to improve the war against money laundering. To avoid this, the Government will give a report at the FATF Plenary Session that will be held this week in Paris, France.
Alfaro, the director of the Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD), Guillermo Araya, and Roman Chavarría, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the ICD, will attend this activity to provide additional information demonstrating the progress of Costa Rica.
How does this affect the country? According to Mario Gómez, legal advisor to the Costa Rican Banking Association, in case of inclusion in that category, the financial system will take the first blows, although the biggest impact will be on a large sector of the economy that is not regulated, as such as liberal professions and casinos, among other activities.
The FATF decision can have serious implications. In the first place, it will affect the financing of the country with foreign banks. These limitations, which would affect banks in the first instance, would also impact the client companies of Costa Rican banks that make purchases or sales abroad, due to the difficulty of making international transfers,”
explained Gómez.
At the same time, the rise in international credit lines or the reduction of their terms, would result in an increase in interest rates at a local level, affecting the productivity of domestic firms.
The financial sector is one of the most committed to prevention in terms of money laundering and financing of terrorism, so the effects of this categorization are taken seriously. For ABC, it is essential that all sectors, especially non-financial sectors, take on the commitment to work in coordination with the authorities, in order to face, as soon as possible, the established changes and regulatory adjustments,”
added Gómez.