The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the foreign exchange stall at Oslo Airport in Norway, which denied the mother of TV host and personality Gretchen Ho from exchanging foreign currency, was using an outdated list of countries under money laundering monitoring.
According to the DFA, its embassy in Oslo coordinated with Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Supervisory Authority, which confirmed that the forex stall was still following an old Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
The FATF identifies countries with deficiencies in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures.
The DFA noted that the Philippines was removed from the FATF grey list in February 2025 and from the European Union’s grey list in June 2025, after implementing reforms that strengthened the country’s financial integrity and its commitment to fight financial crimes.
Norwegian officials assured the DFA that they would coordinate with the Financial Supervisory Authority to update the list and remove the Philippines from the roster of high-risk countries for money laundering or terrorist financing.
In a Facebook post, Gretchen Ho said her family member was denied currency exchange at the Gardermoen Airport in Oslo while trying to exchange $300. She said the teller told them that the transaction could not proceed “because of the corruption and money laundering in the Philippines.”
