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WASHINGTON – Today, Ministers representing the 40 members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) met in Washington and reaffirmed the FATF’s role in protecting the global financial system from illicit activity. Ministers committed the FATF to taking further action to combat terrorist financing and endorsed additional work to prevent sanctions evasion related to proliferation finance. Ministers also agreed to continue efforts to strengthen the legal and operational frameworks for financial transparency and asset recovery to combat systemic corruption and seize illicit proceeds.  Finally, the Ministers agreed to increase resources for the FATF to support the upcoming round of mutual evaluations. 

The Ministers also reiterated their position that the Russian Federation’s ongoing, illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified invasion of Ukraine runs counter to the FATF’s core principles and represents a gross violation FATF Standards and Ministerial commitments. The Ministers called for jurisdictions to remain vigilant of threats to the integrity, safety, and security of the international financial system arising from the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Minister Rajah. I want to welcome Indonesia as the newest FATF member and commend the FATF in successfully meeting its 2022 ministerial commitment on global anti-corruption efforts. I support the FATF’s priorities in the Ministerial Declaration and welcome increasing the core budget for the upcoming biennium as the FATF prepares to undertake the next assessment round.  

I am fully aware of the accountability and pressure that the FATF has brought to bear to address the largest structural deficiency from our 2016 MER on transparency for legal persons. I am proud that the FATF recognized Treasury’s long and diligent efforts to rectify this major gap in our AML/CFT framework through the Corporate Transparency Act and the CDD Rule.  

I also believe it is essential that the FATF continue to emphasize terrorist financing work as a core part of its mandate. We especially must do more to ensure that financial facilitators of terrorist organizations from ISIS to Hamas and Hizballah cannot access the global financial system to further their agenda and cause harm to innocent civilians. In light of the escalatory actions in the Middle East, it is important that the FATF continues to hold Iran accountable for its failure to comply with the FATF standards. I also want to recognize the FATF’s historic decision in 2023 to suspend Russia from this body and to condemn Russia’s growing financial connectivity with North Korea and Iran.  

The FATF’s work to combat WMD proliferation financing is now more important than ever. We welcome additional efforts by the FATF to assist countries to mitigate proliferation financing risks. Thank you.

Click here to read the full Declaration of the Ministers of the Financial Action Task Force for April 2024.

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