Peso retreats as Philippines enters dirty money list anew

The Philippine peso retreated against its US counterpart on Monday, dragged by the inclusion of the Philippines in the dirty money list.

The local currency lost 16.4 centavos to close at P48.645:$1 versus last Friday’s finish of P48.481:$1.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael Ricafort attributed Monday’s depreciation on the inclusion of the Philippines in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) last Friday.

The grey list covers countries subjected to higher surveillance to prove its progress against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The country was removed from the list in 2005, and was again included in this year’s list along with Haiti, Malta, and South Sudan.

“Peso also weaker after Malacañang signaled it would be difficult to change or ease the quarantine classification of NCR, thereby could signal continuation of some restrictions,” said Ricafort. — RSJ, GMA News