Joint MONEYVAL/EAG workshop was held from 19 September to 21 September in Strasbourg (France)

A joint MONEYVAL/EAG workshop “Review of the FATF standards” was aimed at making member states of the two groups familiar with the changes in the FATF Recommendations.

The meeting gathered the heads and leading specialists of the financial investigation units of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) and the Eurasian group. The most important presentations were made by the representatives of the FATF, the WB and the IMF. It’s worthwhile to notice an unusual format of the workshop letting all the participants be involved in the discussions. Almost all delegations had an opportunity to take floor on various themes.

Special attention was paid to implementation of the risk-based approach. The new version of the FATF standards outlines national risk assessment as main criteria of national AML/CFT systems effectiveness. In particular, further work on their development will be based on national risk assessment.

International cooperation of the FIUs in the field of combating money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing of proliferation turned to become another disputable issue of the workshop. Changes in the field of information exchange are called to make the world AML/CFT/FP system more coherent and transparent.

The workshop is highly important in the light of conducting work on clarification of the new FATF Recommendations. On results of the meeting the representatives of member states of the two groups received necessary answers on the issues of implementation of the updated AML/CFT/FP standards.