A European anti-money laundering monitoring body said the Isle of Man has made progress in complying with international standards.

But the island remains in ’enhanced follow-up’ - and will have to report back to MoneyVal within a year on what further progress it has made.

The Manx government welcomed the assessment which it said meant we now have the second highest technical score in the world.

The island was placed in the enhanced follow-up process following MoneyVal’s mutual evaluation report in December 2016.

Following the latest assessment, the number of areas where the island is deemed compliant when it comes to measures to counter money laundering and terrorism financing has increased from 16 to 20.

One area remains ’partially compliant’ and the other 19 recommendations stay rated as ’largely compliant’.

A first follow-up report was submitted by the Manx government in July last year and now MoneyVal has run the rule over a second, to see what progress has been made in addressing technical compliance deficiencies.

And it said that as a result of moves to strengthen the framework to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing, we’ve seen ratings upgraded in four areas.

Recommendations on record keeping, politically exposed persons and reliance of third parties has been re-rated from ’largely compliant’ to ’compliant’.

And a fourth recommendation on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements has been re-rated from ’partially compliant’ to ’compliant’.

MoneyVal also assessed progress in implementing new requirements where recommendations have changed since the 2016 evaluation report was adopted.

Ratings of these five other recommendations remain unchanged.

Those on non-profit organisations, foreign branches and subsidiaries and confidentiality stay as ’largely compliant’ and national co-ooperation and co-ordination remains ’compliant’.

And despite some deficiencies relating to online gaming organisations having been addressed, MoneyVal said some shortcomings remain and its rating in this area is kept as ’partially compliant’.

An Isle of Man Government spokesman said: ’This is a really positive report for the Isle of Man, and shows the significant progress we have made.

’We were upgraded on four out of the five recommendations applied for and now are considered to have the joint second highest technical score in the world.

’We continue to meet our international obligations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.’