On July 19, 2018, the Financial Action Task Force published its report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The report gives an overview of recent FATF work and its proposed next steps in its current workstreams. The United States takes over the FATF Presidency for the period July 2018 to June 2019 and has separately published a document summarizing its priority and other initiatives for the duration of its presidency.
The FATF report provides updates on its work in the following workstreams:
- FATF's work program on virtual currencies/crypto assets. The FATF is pursuing several workstreams in the area of virtual currencies/crypto assets, covering: (i) the money laundering and terrorist financing risks; (ii) the regulatory environment; and (iii) global standards and guidance, including review of the FATF's 2015 guidance on a risk-based approach to virtual currencies.
- countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction—this work will be prioritized during the U.S. presidency;
- countering the financing of terrorism—under the U.S. presidency, the FATF will focus further work on improving the effectiveness of CTF efforts, including improving information sharing and coordination and by the development of guidance to help countries better understand terrorist financing risks;
- improving transparency and the availability of beneficial ownership information—the FATF has published a detailed report jointly with the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units;
- improving the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, via FATF engagement with judges and prosecutors;
- de-risking; and
- digital identity—under the U.S. presidency, the FATF will continue its work to understand digital ID and verification technologies and will prioritize its ongoing work stream to ensure that the FATF Standards are compatible with the growing use of digital forms of customer identification.
The FATF report to the G20 is available at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/FATF-Report-G20-FM-CBG-July-2018.pdf and the objectives for the FATF's U.S. Presidency 2018–2019 are available at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/content/images/Objectives-FATF-XXX-(2018-2019).pdf.
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