I refer to your Article dated 22 February 2024 written by your Reporter Sialai Sarafina Sanerivi Titled "Samoa still on EU Blacklist".

I write to clarify the mistake on pages 1 and 4 of your article, where you stated that...Samoa remains on the European Union's anti-money laundering blacklist following a recent review".

Samoa is not on the European Union (EU) anti-money laundering (AML) blacklist or any other blacklist for AML. The list that your article is referring to is the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for Tax purposes, those are two separate lists.

As a member of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering ("APG") Samoa has greatly improved its AML Compliance framework with amendments made in 2018 to our Money Laundering Prevention Act 2007 and continues to do so with our international partners.

The Central Bank of Samoa and the Government are continuing their efforts to improve Samoa's anti-money laundering framework under International AML and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Standards.

Samoa is now looking to improve its AML framework to fulfill the Standards. To reiterate Samoa is not on any money laundering blacklist, and our current efforts are to ensure that this remains the case.

We would appreciate it if your newspaper could correct the error and for our letter to be published.

Should you require clarification please contact our Legal and Financial Intelligence Unit team on 34100.

Gilbert Wongsin

(Acting Governor)