It took the Financial Action Task Force, the world's anti-money-laundering standard-setter, until February of this year to make the South Sea island state of Vanuatu promise to work with it and its proxies to live up to the FATF recommendations of 2012.

Since that date, Vanuatu has removed a legal barrier that stopped its financial intelligence unit from sharing information with the police and has come up with guidelines in relation to the freezing of assets (a subject on which the FATF is very keen at the moment) and the reporting of frozen assets.

On the 'still to do' list, Vanuatu has yet to do the following before the FATF is satsfied with its efforts.

• Criminalise money-laundering and terrorist financing to an adequate degree.
• Establish and implement adequate procedures for the confiscation of assets related to money-laundering.
• Establish and implement adequate laws for the identification, tracing and freezing of 'terrorist assets' (actually assets that various Western governments and/or the United Nations Security Council think might be linked to terrorism) and other assets that might have fallen foul of UN sanctions.
• Make its FIU fully operational and effective.
• Strengthen preventive measures, not least for wire transfers.
• "Establish transparency for the financial sector, and for legal persons and arrangements," whatever that phrase may mean.
• Formulate and impose an adequate AML/TF supervisory and oversight plan of action on the entire financial sector plus trust and company service providers.
• Establish appropriate channels for international co-operation.

According to the FATF, Vanuatu's AML/TF action plan has some way to go before the jurisdiction is out of the woods.