FATF Adds Kuwait and Papua New Guinea to “Grey List” After Plenary Meeting

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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body founded to set global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standards, has placed Kuwait and Papua New Guinea on its Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring list. This is commonly referred to as the FATF “grey list.” This updated list was issued following the FATF’s plenary meeting in Mexico City on February 13, 2026. 

The grey list now includes Algeria, Angola, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, the Virgin Islands, and Yemen.

Being added to the grey list signals that both Kuwait and Papua New Guinea have deficiencies in their frameworks to effectively counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and related risks, and that they have made high-level political commitments to address these gaps in cooperation with FATF and regional partners.

While listing does not automatically trigger enhanced due diligence measures, it serves as a signal for jurisdictions to adopt a risk-based approach when interacting with Kuwait and Papua New Guinea.

There were no removals or additions to the FATF high-risk (“black list”) category, which includes North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar.

The FATF said of Kuwait: 

Since the adoption of its [Mutual Evaluation Report]in June 2024, Kuwait has made significant progress on the vast majority of its MER’s recommended actions, including adopting a new national AML/CFT/CPF strategy, further improving its technical compliance framework.

The FATF said of Papua New Guinea: 

Since the adoption of its [Mutual Evaluation Report] in September 2024, Papua New Guinea has made progress on some of the MER’s recommended actions including operationalizing and strengthening the anti-corruption authority, developing a national risk assessment and automating communication of UNSCR updates to relevant government agencies and reporting entities.

Both will continue to work with the FATF to implement their FATF action plans.