The Financial Action Task Force has denied it is looking at creating a system to pull together information on Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) to help firms combat money-laundering. An official at a European industry association made the claim about the international standard setting body this week. A spokesman for the FATF, however, said each country decides if their diplomats are considered as PEPs. "The FATF has no knowledge of national lists of PEPs," he added.

Despite the denial, the association official said the FATF's ideas on pulling together PEPs information from all its members is still on the drawing board. Through discussions with associations, he said the two options being discussed at present are:

• Compiling a PEPs list on the FATF Web site based on information provided by individual countries and regulators.

• Creating a link on the FATF Web site so firms can go directly to a country's or regulator's PEPs list.

If the plans become reality, it will make life easier for all compliance departments ­ especially for small and medium sized firms, the official said. Such firms do not have the resources of larger investment companies when looking at investing in new jurisdictions, he added.

Industry officials recently called on the European Commission to create an international list of PEPs (CR, 4/17). The definition of PEPs has been an ongoing debate between the industry and the Commission (CR, 1/16). Officials have asked for more detailed PEP guidance in relation to the EU's Third Money Laundering Directive, which was published in November and will need to be implemented by late 2007. The FATF provided guidance on how firms can identify PEPs in a report it published in 2004.