FATF Annual Report 1997-1998

Belgium chaired the ninth round of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). A major task conducted during the 1997-1998 round by the FATF was the review of its future mission and programme of work from 1999 to 2004. The FATF also continued its work relating to the implementation and refinement of anti-money laundering measures. In addition, the Task Force further developed co-operation with a number of international organisations concerned with the combat of money laundering.

On 28 April 1998, FATF Ministers and the European Commissioner for Financial Services endorsed the report prepared by the FATF which defines a five year plan -- 1999-2004 -- to spread the anti-money laundering message to all continents and regions of the globe. To this end, Ministers urged FATF to foster the establishment of a world-wide anti-money laundering network based on adequate expansion of the FATF membership, the development of FATF-style regional bodies such as the Caribbean FATF and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, and close co-operation with all the relevant international organisations, in particular the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP) and the International Financial Institutions. They also agreed that other important tasks of the FATF for the next five years should include improving the implementation of the forty Recommendations within its own membership and strengthening the review of money laundering trends and countermeasures.

As in previous rounds, the Task Force devoted a considerable part of its work to the monitoring of members’ implementation of the forty Recommendations on the basis of the self-assessment and mutual evaluation procedures. Through an enhanced process, the 1997-1998 self-assessment exercise showed that members had continued to make progress in implementing the forty Recommendations. Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Norway and Greece underwent an assessment of the implementation of the forty Recommendations.

FATF Annual Report 1997-1998