20 April 2012

Ministers renew the mandate of the Financial Action Task Force until 2020

"Effective action against money laundering and terrorist financing, including both preventive and law enforcement measures, is essential for securing a more transparent and stable international financial system... As an intergovernmental body established by the G7 Summit in 1989, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) exists for the purpose of protecting the international financial system from misuse and to mobilise action to go after criminals and their assets.  We, the Ministers and representatives of the FATF Members, reaffirm our commitment to the objectives of the FATF in developing policy and promoting effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and new and emerging threats to the integrity of the international financial system."

"The FATF Recommendations are the international standard for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation. They form the basis for a coordinated response to these threats to the integrity of the financial system and help to ensure a level playing field. We welcome the adoption by the FATF of revised standards in February 2012. We endorse the FATF Recommendations as an international standard and call on all countries to fully implement measures in line with them. Since full and effective implementation of the FATF Recommendations in all countries is one of our fundamental goals, we remain committed to assessing the degree of implementation and the effectiveness of systems designed to combat money laundering and terrorist financing through the conduct of a 4th round of ‘peer reviews’ (‘mutual evaluations’) of our Members as well as monitoring progress through appropriate follow-up processes. Future evaluations will move beyond technical compliance of the standards and aim to understand how resources and sanctions are being applied in practice to meet desired objectives. The FATF will work closely with FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in refining procedures for evaluations, including the common methodology and common processes for assessing compliance.

We recognise the leading role of the FATF in promoting full and effective implementation of the FATF Recommendations in collaboration with other national and international stakeholders and, most importantly, through a global network of FSRBs. We support the linkages between the FATF and FSRB mutual evaluation programmes and the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programme. We also encourage the FATF to continue communicating broadly about this work.

We reaffirm our support for the timely identification and monitoring of high-risk and non co-operative countries and for co-ordinated action when necessary to protect the integrity of the financial system against the threat posed by such countries.  It is essential that all countries take collective action to apply countermeasures when called on by the FATF."

"We endorse the work of the FATF and approve the following Mandate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which will from this date serve as the framework for its activities.  The technical implementation of the FATF Mandate will be carried out by the officials and experts of our member countries. We look forward to receiving regular updates from the FATF on key aspects of its work."

Press release

Mandate

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