Review of the FATF Standards and historical versions

Publication details

Language

English

French

Country

Topic

FATF Recommendations

Review of the FATF Standards and historical versions

First public consultation
Second public consultation
Response to the public consultation on the revision of the FATF Recommendations
Historical versions of the FATF Recommendations

Preparation for the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations

The FATF develops and promotes global standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Having conducted its 3rd Round of , FATF conducted a review of the its Recommendations (The 40 Recommendations, published October 2004 and IX Special Recommendations) to ensure that they remained up-to-date and relevant, and to benefit from lessons learnt from implementing and evaluating these standards. The review was a focused and balanced exercise, aiming at maintaining the necessary stability in the standards while addressing any deficiencies or loopholes in the FATF standards.

The FATF Standares are comprised of the FATF Recommendations, their Interpretive Notes and applicable definitions from the Glossary.

First public consultation

Between October 2010 and January 2011, the FATF undertook a public consultation on the first phase of its review of the FATF standards. The responses received were published on the FATF website in February 2011 (see below). The response to the consultation was very significant, both in terms of the number of submissions received and their content; and the FATF greatly values this input from the private sector and civil society. Fifty-one written submissions were received from representatives of the financial sector; eighteen from representatives of the non-financial businesses and professions; and six from other respondents, including non-governmental organisations.

The FATF considered the issues raised during the initial consultation. In particular, it reviewed certain aspects of the proposals relating to the risk-based approach, customer due diligence, wire transfers and politically exposed persons, taking into account comments received during the consultation process.

A compilation of the responses per sector is available for download:

Second public consultation

Between June and September 2011, the FATF undertook a second public consultation on a set of policy proposals concerning issues that were considered during the second phase of the review, such as: beneficial ownership; data protection and group-wide compliance programmes; wire transfers; targeted financial sanctions; and politically exposed persons.

Seventy-three responses were received from representatives of the financial sector, non-financial businesses and professions and other respondents, including non-governmental organisations.

The FATF considered the responses and a number of the issues raised by the respondents that had already been addressed as part of the revision of the FATF Standards.

A compilation of responses is available for download below:

Response to the public consultation on the revision of the FATF Recommendations

The consultation process generated a large number of responses and a broad range of opinions. While it was impossible to respond to each and every comment, the FATF prepared a response to the key issues raised during the consultation process.