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REGIONAL:The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Standards on Effectiveness, 14-17/12/20
December 14, 2020 - December 17, 2020
What: Training on the Financial Action Task Force Standards on Effectiveness
Where: Online
When: 14 – 17 December 2020
Who: 83 participants, from 11 Countries – Regional Webinar
Context
Since 2013, The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) adopted a new methodology of assessing compliance of national AML-CFT systems to mitigate the risks of money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destructions. In the AML-CFT context, assessing effectiveness is key to evaluate and ensure outcomes of national policies, legislations and operations contributed by all relevant agencies. FATF effectiveness standards is about assessing outcomes (results), identifying achievements and gaps, and enabling countries to prioritise improvement measures.
In terms of effectiveness or achieving the desired outcomes, most countries in the region face critical challenges. The Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Mutual Evaluation Reports (MERs) on AML-CFT effectiveness assessments on its member countries revealed that no nation has scored either substantial or high level of effectiveness in any of the 11 FATF Immediate Outcomes (IOs).
The key gaps in effectiveness that national systems face include reporting of STRs, investigation, prosecution and conviction of ML-TF cases, out of proportion with the national risk profiles of countries. Similarly, the rate of successful risk-based supervision, detection, investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and asset recovery is at minimal.
Objectives
The webinar’s aim was to:
- Promote awareness on the importance of achieving results in line with the FATF standards and enhance coordination between relevant national agencies in the AML-CFT system.
- Strengthen the participants’ understanding of the FATF effectiveness assessment methodology in general and elements of the Immediate Outcomes (IOs)
- Contribute to better assessment ratings of national AML-CFT system effectiveness ratings. Understand ML/TF-THB risks and applying the risk-based approach
- Increase appreciation of the importance of a multiagency approach in effectiveness and the role of each agency
Increase the understanding of the state of play of the region in terms of effectiveness and appreciate the need for focusing on outcomes
Outcome and Feedback
A pre-training survey revealed that the level of knowledge and skills on the FATF methodology in general and the effectiveness standards, in particular, is low. However, by the end of the webinar, the training was highly rated by trainees who participated in the post-training survey.