On 23 February the fifth Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary session concluded with some important outcomes for the legal industry. Three days of discussions on key money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing issues have produced new risk-based guidance for the implementation of Recommendation 25 on the beneficial ownership and transparency of legal arrangements. This…
FATF guidance for legal professionals
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has produced risk-based approach (RBA) guidance to help legal professionals design effective measures to manage money laundering and terrorist financing risks. The guidance is also aimed at supervisors of legal professionals, highlighting the importance of supervising the RBA. The FATF developed this non-binding guidance with input from the legal…
The relevance of FATF’s recommendations and fourth round of mutual evaluations to the legal profession
More than two hundred countries in the world have agreed to abide by the anti-money laundering (“AML”) recommendations developed by the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), which is an intergovernmental organization. This article focuses on the potential impact on the legal profession of FATF’s fourth round of mutual evaluations. During these mutual evaluations, which currently…
The FATF FinTech and RegTech initiative
At the end of February 2018, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) launched the new FATF FinTech & RegTech initiative platform, to share information about national initiatives and developments relevant to FinTech and RegTech. The FATF policy is to strongly support responsible financial innovation in line with the FATF Standards to tackle money laundering and…