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FATF Adds China as Member, Issues First Joint Guidance with Private Sector in Busy Year
By Brian Monroe
printThe Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering (AML) watchdog, last year accepted China as its first new member in four years, released six reports on money laundering and terrorist financing trends and dropped the final two countries remaining on a list of nations that don't cooperate with global standards. In its 18th annual report, released Wednesday, the Paris-based FATF also noted that the group issued its first guidance formulated with the help of private companies and individuals: tips on how financial institutions can implement a risk-based AML program. The organization said it made significant progress during the year...
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U.S. officials will soon ask an influential intergovernmental group to call on its members to relax laws preventing bank affiliates from sharing data on suspected financial crimes, say sources.
The world's premier financial crime watchdog declined Friday to suspend Turkey's membership and disclosed how its assessors will begin evaluating jurisdictions on the efficacy with which they fight illicit finance.
The Financial Action Task Force is set to implement a two-tiered grading system for future mutual evaluations as part of an effort to better score the efficacy of anti-money laundering regimes.
An intergovernmental group's revised expectations of how countries should seize looted assets may prove difficult to meet, and could lower the mutual evaluation scores nations receive for their anti-money laundering controls.
The Financial Action Task Force threatened Friday to suspend Turkey's membership if the country fails to pass counterterrorist financing laws ahead of a Feb. 22 meeting by the group.
An intergovernmental group that evaluates how countries fight money laundering and terrorist financing will change how it grades compliance with its standards beginning next year, say individuals familiar with discussions.
The U.S. Treasury Department will issue guidance expanding on pending regulations in an effort to plug compliance gaps ahead of the Financial Action Task Force's next review of the United States.
Intergovernmental evaluations of how nations fight money laundering and terrorist financing often do not accurately reflect whether those efforts are effective, the International Monetary Fund said in a report Wednesday.
Eleven jurisdictions have yet to make "significant progress" on improving their anti-money laundering regimes despite having had six months to more than a year to do so, an intergovernmental watchdog said Monday.
Growing U.S. financial ties to the Chinese market will likely bring anti-money laundering compliance troubles along with profits, according to consultants and former government officials.
A report by an intergovernmental watchdog highlighting the anti-money laundering weaknesses of more than two dozen countries is prompting non-bank financial institutions to drop customers and avoid risky markets.
Gauging the vulnerability of money service businesses' agents to being used to launder money or finance terrorism is central to adopting a risk-based approach to compliance, according to a global watchdog report released Monday.
China's central bank fined 12 Chinese financial institutions in the first six months of 2008 for involvement with money laundering, according to a news report.
The FATF, in a four-year plan the group adopted April 12, said it will meet with financial institutions and other private businesses at trade group events and consultative forums as it develops policies to battle laundering and terrorist financing threats worldwide.
Financial institutions should search for transactions tied to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by using many of the same tactics they use to investigate money laundering and terrorist financing schemes, FATF said in guidance clarifying a United Nations Security Council rule.
The Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering watchdog, may issue a formal recommendation on standards to minimize the use of international trade to help launder money and finance terrorism, a person familiar with the organization says.
Moldova has failed to establish the basic elements of an anti-money laundering regime and Malta has formed strong foundations for its program but now needs to focus on implementing them, AML watchdog Moneyval said in its evaluations of the two nations.
Despite Chinas acceptance into FATF, money laundering and corruption in the country may get worse before they get better as root problems remain unaddressed, AML professionals say.
FATF approved Chinas membership during its plenary meeting in Paris this week. China passed comprehensive AML laws in October 2006 to bring its system in line with international standards.