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FATF Outlines New Effectiveness Score, Rescinds Threat to Suspend Turkey
By Colby Adams
printThe 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. In its next round of mutual evaluations, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will grade nations' effectiveness in combating money laundering and terrorist financing as high, substantial, moderate, or low-a "fundamentally different" approach to how the group scores technical compliance with its 40 standards, the organization said in a 139-page methodology. FATF examiners will assign an effectiveness score to 11 categories, including a country's grasp of its money laundering...
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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.
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