Terrorist Financing - Introduction

At an extraordinary Plenary on the Financing of Terrorism held in Washington, D.C. on 29 and 30 October 2001, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) expanded its mission beyond money laundering. It will now also focus its energy and expertise on the world-wide effort to combat terrorist financing.

During the extraordinary Plenary, the FATF agreed to and issued new international standards to combat terrorist financing, which it calls on all countries to adopt and implement. Implementing these Special Recommendations will deny terrorists and their supporters access to the international financial system. The agreement on the Special Recommendations commits members to:

• Take immediate steps to ratify and implement the relevant United Nations instruments.

• Criminalise the financing of terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist organisations.

• Freeze and confiscate terrorist assets.

• Report suspicious transactions linked to terrorism.

• Provide the widest possible range of assistance to other countries’ law enforcement and regulatory authorities for terrorist financing investigations.

• Impose anti-money laundering requirements on alternative remittance systems.

• Strengthen customer identification measures in international and domestic wire transfers.

• Ensure that entities, in particular non-profit organisations, cannot be misused to finance terrorism.