FATF revision of the international standards on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism and of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier draws the attention of professionals of the financial sector subject to the law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing to the Financial Action Task Force’s (“FATF”) revision of its framework on combating money laundering and terrorist financing, known as “40+9 Recommendations”. The new rules, which concern combating money laundering as well as financing of terrorism and of proliferation, were adopted by the FATF during its last plenary meeting on 15 February 2012.

The FATF’s framework comprises henceforth only 40 recommendations. As regards the content, among the main changes to these rules, which may be of interest for the financial sector, the following shall be mentioned:

• extension of the scope to combat the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with a systematic application of targeted financial sanctions when these are called for by the United Nations Security Council;
• improvement of the transparency in order to avoid that criminals and terrorists conceal their identities or hide their assets behind legal persons and arrangements;
• stronger requirements when dealing with politically exposed persons (PEPs);
• expansion of the scope of money laundering predicate offences by including tax crimes;
• application of an enhanced risk-based approach which enables to apply resources more efficiently by focusing on higher risk areas.

We invite you to acquaint yourself with all the new recommendations on the FATF’s website: www.fatf-gafi.org.