The European Union (EU) Commission yesterday updated its data on countries that pose a financial risk due to shortcomings in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing and added 12 new countries to its blacklist.

 Ghana is one of four African countries on this list. The other 3 African countries pinned in this dirty money case are Botswana, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.

Other countries outside Africa are the Bahamas, Barbados, Cambodia, Jamaica, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Panama. This update came after an in-depth examination of the financial transaction of the above-mentioned countries. It will be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe for approval.

For the fight against money laundering in Europe, Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission said that "We must put an end to the actions that allow dirty money to infiltrate our financial system. Today, we are further strengthening our defences against money laundering and terrorist financing, with a comprehensive and far-reaching action plan. There must be no weak links either in our rules or in their implementation."

The update was carried out based on international developments since 2018, the EU said in a statement, adding that the new list is now more in line with those published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The countries that have been removed from the EU list are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Guyana, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.

The European Commission has also put forward a series of proposals to strengthen the EU's anti-money laundering system, including a new pan-European authority, following a series of major scandals.