Financial Crime World

Belgium Makes Strides in Combating Terrorist Financing, but Work Remains to Be Done

A recent report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has assessed Belgium’s efforts to combat terrorist financing and has found that while progress has been made, there is still much work to be done.

Areas of Progress

  • The report highlighted several areas where Belgium has implemented the technical requirements of the FATF Recommendations, including:
    • Assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach to combating terrorist financing
    • Establishing national cooperation and coordination mechanisms to combat financial crimes
  • The country has also made significant strides in implementing targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing

Areas for Improvement

  • The report identified several areas where Belgium falls short, including:
    • Ineffective measures to prevent the misuse of new technologies for terrorist financing purposes
    • Issues with transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons
    • Powers of supervisors and law enforcement authorities need to be strengthened in order to effectively combat terrorist financing
  • Despite these shortcomings, the FATF has praised Belgium for its efforts to improve its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime

Commitment to Improvement

  • The report noted that Belgium has made significant progress in implementing the FATF Recommendations and has demonstrated a commitment to continuing to improve its AML/CFT regime
  • In response to the report, Belgian authorities have announced plans to implement additional measures to combat terrorist financing, including:
    • Strengthening the regulation of new technologies
    • Improving transparency and beneficial ownership requirements for legal persons

Overall, while Belgium has made significant progress in combating terrorist financing, there is still much work to be done. The country’s commitment to improving its AML/CFT regime and implementing additional measures to combat terrorist financing is a positive step forward.