FATF Plenary meeting opens with terrorist financing high on the agenda

‌Today Mr. Michel Sapin, French Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, opened the FATF Plenary meeting which will continue until Friday 27 February. In his speech, M. Sapin congratulated the FATF on the united global front it ‌represents in the fight against terrorism.  He urged the members of the FATF Global Network to continue its important work to disrupt the most complex and opaque terrorist financing techniques. He highlighted in particular, the call by G20 Finance Ministers to the FATF to engage even more on the fight against terrorism (Intervention M. Michel Sapin Ministre des Finances et des Comptes publics currently available in French only). 

The FATF Plenary is a three day meeting, which brings together the 36 members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and representatives from the FATF-Style Regional Bodies.  This meeting is the second meeting of the FATF Plenary under the  of Mr. Roger Wilkins AO of Australia. Terrorist financing, and the financial of ISIL in particular, will have a particular focus during this meeting. 

Other issues on the agenda for the Plenary meeting are:

• A discussion of the outcomes of the assessments of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) measures of Australia and Belgium.
• Adoption of a report on the sources and methods of financing of the terrorist organisation Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
• Engagement with the FATF-Style Regional Bodies through the Global Network Co-ordination Group to ensure effective global implementation of the revised FATF Recommendations.
• Review of the implementation of measures taken by a number of countries to address deficiencies identified in the last round of mutual evaluation reports.
• Identification of jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT system and a review of progress made by jurisdictions that had been identified at the June 2014 Plenary. 

A summary of outcomes will be published at the end of the meeting. 

The FATF sets standards and promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The decision-making body of the FATF is the FATF Plenary, which is supported by a number of Working Groups.

Contacts

For further information, please contact the FATF Secretariat at contact@fatf-gafi.org.