IMF Staff Country Reports

This Selected Issues paper explores a safe payments corridor for Samoa. This paper provides a targeted analysis of money laundering/terrorism financing risks pertaining to remittances to Samoa, confirming limited risks, and discusses potential opportunities for operationalizing existing remittances risk assessments and streamlining applicable anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements. Remittances play a crucial role in the Samoan economy and are an important source of income for many households. Addressing AML/CFT-related frictions when sending remittances has the potential to reduce remittance costs and save scarce supervisory resources. Closer cooperation and information exchange between AML/CFT supervisors can reduce risk, provide regulatory certainty and reduce costs. Enhanced cooperation can also promote AML/CFT regulatory and legislative harmonization. The recommendations should be considered in the context of broader national objectives to address the unintended consequences of money transfer operator de-banking. Due to the critical role of remittances, addressing the correspondent banking relationship pressures on remittance service providers should be also considered in the context of achieving national objectives in the areas of social, labor, and foreign policies.