Costa Rica News – Costa Rica hopes to save itself this week from a gray list on money laundering.
The International Financial Action Task Force (GAFI) will decide this week whether or not to include Costa Rica on the gray list of countries that do not cooperate in combating money laundering and countering terrorism financing.
The GAFI will hold a meeting in Valencia, Spain, where it will release its opinion on several countries. The head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs will be present.
If it is decided that the efforts of Costa Rica have been insufficient, the first to be affected would be the banks. The banking correspondents abroad would be lost and financing abroad would be much more difficult. Interest rates would rise. Sectors like importation and tourism would also be harmed.
Costa Rica is currently not on the gray list, but was mandated in 2015 to correct identified weaknesses.
President Luis Guillermo Solis asks the GAFI to consider the enactment of a new law in Costa Rica that attacks money laundering.
