The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), seeking to set global standards against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, has agreed a new set of standards aimed at combating the global threat of money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The UK supports these new standards and the need for FATF and its member countries to promote their implementation.
The FATF Recommendations have been revised to provide governments with stronger tools to take action against financial crime and protect the integrity of the global financial system. Recommendations have been strengthened, specifically in areas which are high risk or where implementation could be enhanced, including dealing with new threats such as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, improving transparency and being tougher on corruption.
The revision the Government says will also provide more flexibility to simplify measures that are applied to financial services or transactions that pose a low risk for abuse. This risk-based approach will allow financial institutions and other designated sectors to focus resources more effectively on higher risk areas.
Countries’ technical compliance to these recommendations is monitored, assessed and reviewed by FATF members through a peer review, or “mutual evaluation”, process. FATF will begin a new round of evaluations on the Recommendations of its member countries in 2013 and will focus much more intensively on assessing how effectively countries have implemented the standards.
The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Sassoon said: “The UK welcomes the revised FATF standards. The integrity of the global financial system will now be better protected through strengthened measures to combat the global threat of money laundering, terrorist financing and of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We are fully committed to implementing these new global standards and will work with international partners in FATF to encourage full and consistent adoption by all countries.”
