Financial Crime World

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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

The FATF is an inter-governmental organization that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. Its mission is achieved through a range of activities with its member countries and other stakeholders.

Key Activities

  • Setting Standards: The FATF sets international standards for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) that countries are expected to implement.
  • Monitoring Progress: The FATF assesses each member country’s implementation of these standards through a mutual evaluation process.
  • Identifying and Addressing Emerging Risks: The FATF identifies emerging risks, such as those related to virtual assets, and provides guidance on how countries can address them.
  • Providing Guidance: The FATF publishes guidance documents that provide practical advice for governments and the private sector on implementing AML/CFT/CPF measures.
  • Promoting Cooperation: The FATF promotes cooperation among its members and between its members and other international organizations to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

Key Publications

Guidance Documents

  • Guidance on Digital Identity: This guidance helps governments, financial institutions, virtual asset service providers, and other regulated entities determine whether a digital ID is appropriate for use in customer due diligence.
  • Risk, Trends, and Methods Working Group (RTMG): The RTMG flags and analyzes money laundering and terrorism financing as well as any threat that could undermine global finance.
  • Countering Ransomware Financing: This report analyzes the methods that criminals use to carry out their ransomware attacks and how payments are made and laundered.
  • Ethnically or Racially Motivated Violent Extremism: This report builds on previous FATF work on CFT, including the July 2019 Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment Guidance and October 2015 Emerging Terrorist Financing Risks report, in order to understand how a variety of actors operating under the umbrella of racially- or ethnically-motivated terrorism finance their activities.
  • Trade-Based Money Laundering: Risk Indicators: This report identifies TBML based on the type of businesses involved in trade activity, risks around trade documents and commodities, and account and transaction irregularities.
  • Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: This report provides examples of virtual asset activity that may suggest it is being exploited by criminals or terrorists.

Regional Bodies

The FATF also has several style regional bodies (FSRBs) that help implement its global AML/CFT/PF policies around the world. These include:

  • APG (Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering)
  • Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units
  • GAFI (Latin American and Caribbean Financial Action Task Force)
  • GGAB (West Africa’s Anti-Money Laundering Group)
  • BACEN (Inter-American Committee Against Money Laundering)
  • CIGAG (Group of Experts on Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism for the Americas)
  • AMENA (Arab Monetary Fund’s Middle East and North Africa Action Plan)
  • MONEYVAL (Council of Europe’s Moneyval)