Outcomes FATF Plenary, 22-24 February 2023

FATF Plenary Meeting under Presidency of T. Raja Kumar of Singapore was held from February 20 – 24, 2023. The EAG Secretariat participated in the event. The main outcomes are:

Russian Federation membership was suspended. Rosfinmonitoring official statement on this issue https://fedsfm.ru/releases/6372 

Mutual Evaluation Reports of Indonesia (APG Member) and Qatar (GCC Member) were adopted. Both countries were placed on the enhanced monitoring.

The FATF “gray” list was updated https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/High-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/Increased-monitoring-february-2023.html

The "black" list remained unchanged https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/High-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/Call-for-action-February-2023.html

Important steps have been taken to increase beneficial ownership transparency and prevent criminals from hiding illicit activity behind opaque corporate structures. A revision of Recommendation 25 "Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Arrangements”, as well as new Guidance to help countries implement the requirements of Recommendation 24, “Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons”, has been agreed.

The Action Plan for the timely implementation by countries of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets was approved.

FATF adopted the report “Countering the Ransomware Financing”. The document is aimed at assisting the law enforcement agencies to develop the necessary skills and tools to quickly collect key information, trace the nearly instantaneous virtual transactions and recover virtual assets/ The report is published at the FATF web-site https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/Methodsandtrends/countering-ransomware-financing.html

The Plenary selected Mr. Jeremy Weil, from Canada to be the next FATF Vice President.

Next FATF Plenary will take place in June in Paris.

EAG Secretariat