About EAG

About EAG

The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and financing of terrorism is an FATF-style regional body. The EAG was established in 2004 and is currently an associate member of the FATF.

The EAG was created for the countries of the Eurasian region not included in the existing FATF-style regional groups and is intended to play an important role in reducing the threat of international terrorism and ensure the transparency, reliability and security of the financial systems of states and their further integration into the international infrastructure for combating money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CFT). The creation of the group coincided with the launch of efforts to create conditions for the formation and development of effective anti-money-laundering systems in the region.

The initiative to establish the EAG was first announced by the Russian Federation at the Plenary Meeting of the FATF in October 2003. In February 2004 the issue was addressed at an international meeting of the Cooperation of CIS Member-States in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing with the participation of the CIS countries and China, as well as several international organizations.

The initiative received support from the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CIS which recommended that the countries concerned hold a founding conference to create an FATF-style group regional.

The founding conference was held in Moscow on October 6, 2004 and was attended by six founding countries: Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In 2005 and 2010 the group was expanded to include Uzbekistan (2005), Turkmenistan (2010) and India (2010) which previously had observer status.

The Agreement on the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism was signed in Moscow in June 2011, granting the EAG the status of a regional intergovernmental organization.

Today the EAG brings together nine countries in the region (Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). Observer status has been granted to 17 countries and 24 international organizations.

The primary goal of the EAG is to improve conditions to protect financial systems and economies of the Member States from the threats of money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in accordance with the FАTF International Standards on Combatting Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation and other successor provisions, as well as other measures, aimed at combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation, taken by other international organizations to which the Member States are party, and to provide effective interaction and cooperation at the regional level.

The main tasks of the EAG:

• assisting the Member States in implementing the FАTF Standards;
• elaborating and conducting joint activities, implementing best practices aimed at the development of systems for combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation;
• implementing а program of mutual evaluations of the Member States based on the FATF Standards, including assessment of the effectiveness of legislative and other measures adopted in the sphere of combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation efforts;
• coordinating international cooperation and technical assistance programs with specialized international organizations, bodies, and interested states;
• analyzing money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation typologies, risks and trends; sharing experience, and developing measures of combating such crimes in the context of the Member States.