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Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

FATF or the ‘Financial Action Task Force’ was chartered by the Group of Seven industrial nations to foster the establishment of national and global measures to combat money laundering. It is an international policy-making body that sets anti-money laundering standards and counter-terrorist financing measures worldwide.

Its recommendations, whilst widely implemented into nations’ legislation, do not have the force of law.

35 nations and 2 global organizations are members. In 2012, FATF substantially revised its 40 + 9 recommendations and reduced them to 40. FATF develops annual typology reports showcasing current money laundering and terrorist financing trends and methods.

The Financial Action Task Force regularly sets out guidance in the matters of cryptocurrency and blockchain-based assets such as its Virtual Assets Red Flag Indicators to be in use for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and the ‘Travel Rule’, a regulation based on the U.S.’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of reporting and recording suspicious transactions over a specified threshold.

Travel Rule Requirements: For each payment order in the amount of $3,000 or more that an obliged entity accepts as an originator’s bank, the obliged entity must obtain and retain the following records ( 31 CFR 1020.410(a)(1)(i)): Name and address of the originator, Amount of the payment order and Date of the payment order.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is How-can-criminals-misuse-virtual-assets-lr.png
Source: FATF “How can criminals misuse virtual assets?”

The Financial Action Task Force additionally seeks advice from outside organizations, such as Coinfirm, in relation to reviews of past and future AML/KYC/CFT recommendation changes.

To visit the FATF’s website click here.

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