The European Commission (EU) has blacklisted Nigeria, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Panama and several other countries for financing terrorism and failure to control money laundering.

The newly added countries and jurisdictions bring the number of blacklisted nations to 23, with the EU saying ‘strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing regimes’ necessitated the move.

Other countries just added include Libya, Botswana, Samoa, the Bahamas and the four United States territories of American Samoa, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam

The other countries on the list are Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen.

Bosnia, Guyana, Laos, Uganda and Vanuatu have been removed from the blacklist.

The steps were reportedly being taken to crackdown on money laundering after several scandals in European banks. This is even as countries in the EU including Britain have expressed reservations about their economic relations with the listed countries, notably Saudi Arabi

The blacklisting does not only do reputational damage on the affected countries but also complicates financial relations with the EU as the bloc’s banks will have to execute tougher verifications on payments involving the countries.

The list is however subject to the approval of the 28 EU member states and could be rejected by qualified majority.