The 20th Plenary Session of the MENAFATF

The working groups' meetings, the Committee on National Risk Assessment meeting, the 10th Forum of financial intelligence units and the 20th Plenary Session of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) were held in the period from 18 to 20 November in Manama (Kingdom of Bahrein). A representative of the EAG Secretariat participated in the event.

All member states of the Group took part in the Plenary. The MENAFATF President Mr. Ali Mohsen Ismail (Chairman of the Central Bank of Iraq) chaired the session. Observers were presented by the delegations of Great Britain, Spain, Palestine, the United States, France, the Arab Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the EAG, the IMF, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, and the FATF.

The Plenary approved Working plan for 2015, as well as 10-percent increase in the Group's budget for 2015. The Plenary session addressed the issue of granting an observer status in the MENAFATF to Somalia.

Follow-up reports in the field of AML/CFT of Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Iraq, Oman, Algeria and Syria were heard in accordance with the agenda, as well as of Lebanon and Mauritania, which were on enhanced monitoring procedure. Based on the results of analysis of the progress reports, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates were set to the biennial monitoring procedure.

The MENAFATF will be headed by a representative of the Sultanate of Oman in 2015, and by Qatar in 2016 (Vice-President in 2015).

The Plenary approved the Procedures, the Schedule and the Evaluators Qualifications for the MENAFATF 2nd round mutual evaluations, as well as the Arabic version of the 2013 FATF Methodology, and the Schedule for completing the 1st round of mutual evaluations.
Public statement following the Plenary Session will be published on the MENAFATF site. The next Plenary Session of the Group will be held in the first half of 2015.

The EAG Secretariat briefed the MENAFATF Plenary on preparation of the joint MENAFATF/EAG seminar on typologies, on the EAG Member States voluntary tax compliance (VTC) procedures review and implementation of these programs in the EAG Member States, as well as on the results of the EAG 21st Plenary Meeting.