The foreign exchange stall at the Oslo airport in Norway, which denied the mother of Filipina host and personality Gretchen Ho to exchange foreign currency, used an outdated record of countries in a money laundering grey list, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) identifies countries that have deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regimes.
The DFA said its embassy in Oslo contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway for an explanation and found out that the forex stall at the airport is still following the old FATF list.
FATF removed the Philippines from its grey list in February 2025, and the EU grey list in June 2025, following the introduction of rigorous reforms that fortified the integrity of the Philippines’ financial system and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to combating financial crimes.
“The Norwegian Foreign Ministry officials committed to follow up with the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway to update and delist the Philippines on the forex companies’ list of countries with high risk for money laundering or terrorist financing,” the DFA said.
In a Facebook post, Ho said that a member of their family, who was trying to exchange 300USD, got denied at the foreign exchange counter at the Gardermoen Airport in Oslo, Norway.
She said the lady at the counter told her family member that she cannot exchange the money “because of the corruption and money laundering in the Philippines.” —AOL, GMA Integrated News
