The International Monetary Fund ('IMF') and World Bank published, on 13 December 2021, a report containing a draft framework for money laundering/terrorist financing ('ML/TF') risk assessment in remittance corridors having the potential of being identified as safe remittance corridors. In particular, the IMF and World Bank highlighted that the draft framework provides a contribution to the Financial Stability Board's Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, and aims to achieve faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive cross-border payment services. More specifically, the IMF and World Bank confirmed that this proposed draft framework is the first action under Building Block 7 of the Roadmap, the goal of which is to promote safe payment corridors, and which has two phases:

• the development of a framework and methodology for the assessment of the ML/TF risks in remittance corridors and the identification of potential lower risk corridors, as part of or consistent with a country's national ML/TF risk assessment; and
• the proposed framework is expected to be piloted in some corridors with a view to testing and further refining the assessment methodology.

Furthermore, the draft framework clarifies that the objective of a corridor risk assessment is assessing and understanding the ML/TF risks of remittances in a corridor, with the aim of simplifying measures for anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism in lower risk remittance transactions. Moreover, the IMF and World Bank added that, if the corridor risk assessment assesses that the overall ML/TF risk level in the corridor is lower, the corridor can be treated as a safe remittance corridor and subject to simplified customer due diligence measures by regulatory authorities, which can be implemented by the private sector.

You can read the press release here and access the draft framework here.