T

he Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) announced on Friday that Indonesia had been removed from the global money-laundering and terrorist-financing list following an audit conducted by an international body.

The PPATK said Indonesia earned the status after an evaluation team from the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering (FATF) reporting to the Brisbane-based International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) concluded that the country'€™s financial system had succeeded in preventing terrorist-related financial crimes.

The task force conducted its audit in May.

The Indonesian government decided to step up reforms of the country'€™s financial system after the country was put on the blacklist in 2012 for failing to comply with the FATF'€™s recommendations to adopt international conventions on terrorism as well as failing to prevent terrorist-related transfers in the country or to freeze terrorist-related assets in and outside Indonesia as mandated by the United Nations.

Following the passing of Law No. 9/2013 on terrorism funding and the establishment of a mutual agreement involving the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the National Police chief, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief and the PPATK chairman on the freezing of terrorist-related assets, financial authorities have been granted the authority to seize any funds suspected of having links to terrorist activities in Indonesia.

'€œThis means that regulations in Indonesia and their implementation in the field have met international standards,'€ PPATK deputy chairman Agus Santoso, who is currently in Brisbane attending the forum, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The Brisbane Forum kicked off on June 24 and is expected to wrap up on June 26. In its report to the forum, the ICRG emphasized that '€œIndonesia is a jurisdiction no longer subject to FATF'€™s on-going global compliance process.'€

The FATF is a body that was established by a mandate issued by the G7 and G20 members aimed at establishing efforts to eradicate money laundering and terrorist financing around the globe.

In April, the PPATK announced that it had frozen at least 20 bank accounts, containing billions of rupiah, belonging to al-Qaeda and Taliban-affiliated terrorist groups operating in Indonesia, thanks to the establishment of the multi-institution mutual agreement in 2013.

'€œFor better institutional coordination between the police, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, PPATK and BNPT in the future, we are currently developing an electronic coordination system for prompt action in the future,'€ Agus said.

In a separate press conference held in Jakarta on Friday at the PPATK headquarters, PPATK chairman Muhammad Yusuf said the achievement would boost investor confidence in the country.

Jusuf added that the PPATK along with the financial authorities had frozen a total of Rp 2 billion (US$150,000) in cash transfers in 26 bank accounts in May.

'€œWith this achievement we have been placed on the same level as developed countries such as Singapore. Another benefit is that with this achievement we can expect to see more capital invested in the country especially in infrastructure such as railway and maritime highway development,'€ Yusuf said.

Director of the multilateral division at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Hasan Kleib, said now that Indonesia had been removed from the FATF blacklist, it could increase the number of transfers in and out of Indonesia.