The FATF Plenary meeting convened in Paris with participation from delegates representing over 200 jurisdictions and observers from international organizations. The meeting encompassed various important discussions:
- Mutual Evaluation of Luxembourg: Luxembourg, serving as a regional and international financial hub, demonstrated a high level of technical compliance with the FATF recommendations.
Its robust AML/CFT regime yielded positive outcomes. The country showed a strong understanding of the risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing (ML//TF).
Luxembourg also showcased effective domestic cooperation, coordination in utilizing financial intelligence, access to beneficial ownership information, and collaboration with international partners.
Areas identified for enhancement include the detection, investigation, and prosecution of complex money laundering cases, risk-based supervision of the non-financial sector, improving understanding of terrorist financing, and implementing appropriate sanctions for non-compliance within the financial and non-financial sectors.
2. High-risk and other monitored jurisdictions:
- Addition to the grey-list: Cameroon, Croatia, and Vietnam.
- No jurisdictions were added to the black-list.
3. Targeted Update on the implementation of standards on Virtual Assets: The global implementation of these standards was found to be suboptimal, with nearly three-quarters of jurisdictions being partially compliant or non-compliant. Numerous jurisdictions have yet to incorporate fundamental requirements, and over half have not adopted the Travel Rule. The absence of regulation creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals in the sector.
4. FATF Asset Recovery: The FATF endeavors to equip countries with a comprehensive set of tools to facilitate the effective freezing, seizure, and confiscation of criminal assets, both domestically and through international cooperation.
5. FATF Work to Combat Corruption: The Plenary adopted an internal tool to combat corruption, and members of the FATF engaged in discussions regarding progress made in addressing the misuse of citizenship and residency programs associated with investment schemes.
6. Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs): The FATF is actively exploring potential revisions to Recommendation 8, which aims to safeguard NPOs from terrorist financing abuse while maintaining an environment conducive to legitimate NPO activities.
The FATF intends to release a document concerning these matters for public consultation.
