Remittances to Samoa: A Safe Payment Corridor

Selected Issues Papers, May 15, 2025

Source details

Paper provides a targeted analysis of ML/TF risks pertaining to remittances to Samoa, confirming limited risks.
Discusses potential opportunities for streamlining applicable AML/CFT requirements to operationalize regional remittances risk assessments.
Authors: Maksym Markevych, Miho Tanaka.
Date: May 15, 2025.
Publication: Selected Issues Papers, Issue 061, Volume: 2025, Pages: 25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229009867.018.
ISBN: 9798229009867. ISSN: 2958-7875. Stock No: SIPEA2025061.

De-risking over the past decade has resulted in:
- Correspondent Banking Relationship (CBR) withdrawals.
- CBR fragility.
- Rising concentration risks, especially for money transfer operators (MTOs).
The paper concludes there are limited ML/TF threats to the main remittance corridors to Samoa.
Samoa’s ML/TF vulnerabilities are mostly related to capacity and resource constraints.
Those vulnerabilities are alleviated by:
- The low ML/TF threat environment.
- Regional information exchange.
- Capacity building.
The analysis is based on authorities’ and the financial sector’s risk understanding and publicly available information on crime and the ML risk environment.

Provides an overview of potential regulatory and supervisory measures to promote a risk-based approach to CBRs.
Discusses streamlining AML/CFT requirements for low-risk remittances to Samoa to operationalize regional remittances risk assessments.
Emphasizes leveraging regional information exchange and capacity building to mitigate capacity- and resource-related vulnerabilities.

Subject: Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), Balance of payments, Correspondent banking, Crime, Economic sectors, Financial sector, Financial services, Medium taxpayer office, Remittances, Revenue administration.
Keywords: Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), Australia and New Zealand, Australia labour mobility, Correspondent banking, Financial sector, Global, Medium taxpayer office, Money transfer operator, Pacific Islands, Remittance corridor, Remittances, Risk remittance product, Samoa, Sectoral risk assessment, TF risk, TF threat environment, TF vulnerability, Transaction report.

Source: "Remittances to Samoa: A Safe Payment Corridor", Selected Issues Paper No. 2025/061, Maksym Markevych and Miho Tanaka, May 15, 2025.