FATF Annual Report 1999-2000

Portugal chaired the eleventh round of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). The 1999-2000 round of FATF marked officially the implementation of the priorities agreed to in the review of the FATF’s remit from 1999 to 2004 and approved by the Ministers of the FATF member countries on 28 April 1998.

The activities of the Task Force focused, therefore, on three main areas:

• to spread the anti-money laundering message to all continents and regions of the globe;
• to improve members’ implementation of the Forty Recommendations; 
• to strengthen the review of money laundering methods and counter-measures.

Major achievements of the twelve months included the admission of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico as full members of the FATF, the development of FATF-style regional bodies, the improvement of the anti-money laundering systems in FATF members, in particular Austria.

The FATF supported the various activities of regional bodies involved in the fight against money laundering, such as the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), the Council of Europe Select Committee of Experts on Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (PC-R-EV) and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). A significant development occurred in Africa with the creation of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 1999.

FATF Annual Report 1999-2000