May 6, 2016

Focus on Corruption: Myanmar - A New Beginning?

 Historically, Myanmar has not been known as a country with a focus on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering.  In 2015, the Frankfurt-based Transparency International ranked the country as one of the most corrupt places to do business, putting it in 147th place out of 168 countries in terms of the Corruption Perception Index. The situation was evidently so dire that global giant Coca-Cola took the drastic step of insisting that its delivery drivers carry anti-corruption cards proclaiming that they do not pay bribes to errant officials and that they must report any solicitation to their supervisors.

While doing business in Myanmar has significant hurdles, there are signs that the situation is improving. In 2006, Myanmar was removed from the International Financial Action Task Force’s (“FATF”) list of “Non Cooperative Countries and Territories” with its implementation of controls in accordance with the IMF’s Anti-Money Laundering/Combating and Financing of Terrorism guidelines (“AML/CFT”). More recently, in September 2015 the Central Bank of Myanmar published further AML/CFT guidelines for financial institutions, implementing some of FATF’s recommendations. Myanmar has also improved its anti-corruption policies. (Courtesy of jdsupra.com)

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