Mutual Evaluation: United States

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia Pacific Group (APG) have jointly assessed the United States’ anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) standards. Among the major findings of the report were:

• The United States has a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for investigating and prosecuting money laundering and terrorist financing offenses. 
• The United States vigorously pursues, seizes and confiscates the assets of criminals involved in money-laundering and terrorist financing. 
• The United States has an effective regulatory and supervisory framework for monitoring compliance with AML/CFT measures and has imposed severe financial penalties on financial institutions that do not comply with the measures. 
• Customer identification requirements apply to most types of financial institutions; however, these could be strengthened, particularly in relation to the identification of beneficial owners. 
• AML/CFT measures presently apply to a broad range of financial institutions; however, the FATF recommends that comprehensive AML/CFT measures should also apply to a wider range of non-financial businesses and professions. 
• Company formation procedures and reporting requirements are such that the information on beneficial ownership of legal persons may not, in most instances, be adequate, accurate or available on a timely basis.

A summary of the major findings of the report, as well as the entire assessment report, was released today. Click here to download a copy of the summary. Click here to download a copy of the full assessment report. Click here to download a copy of the annexes to the report. The United States is the ninth country to be examined in the third series of FATF mutual evaluations of its members.

For further information, journalists are invited to contact Helen Fisher, OECD Media Relations (tel.: +33 1 45 24 80 97 or Helen.Fisher@oecd.org); Molly Millerwise, United States Department of the Treasury (tel.: +1 202 622 2015); or the FATF Secretariat, 2 rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16 (tel.: +33 1 45 24 79 45, fax: +33 1 44 30 61 37 or e-mail: Contact@fatf-gafi.org).