Financial Action Task Force & FATF-Style Regional Bodies

The core documents of the FATF (referred to as the "FATF standards") are:

• FATF 40 Recommendations; 
• Interpretative Notes to the 40 Recommendations;

In addition, central to undertstanding and applying the FATF standards are the following:

• FATF Assessment Methodology, 2013; and
• FATF Best Practice and Guidance papers.

The FATF Recommendations require countries, territories and regions to:

• Criminalise money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing in accordance with international law;
• Freeze terrorist assets and confiscate the proceeds of crime;
• Establish a financial intelligence unit to collect, analyse, evaluate and disseminate suspicious transaction reports from financial institutions and other reporting entities;
• Supervise those financial institutions and other reporting entities to ensure compliance with customer due diligence and other requirements contained in the standards; and
• Ensure that comprehensive and effective mechanisms are in place to cooperate effectively on the international level given the growing international dimension to these crimes.

These standards have been accepted internationally as the global policy benchmark for anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing and anti-proliferation financing measures by the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and many other international organisations and bodies. The key changes to the FATF standards included in the 2012 revised version are as follows:

• Requirement for countries to undertake a national risk assessment;
• Measures relating to proliferation financing;
• Addition of tax crimes as predicate offences to money laundering;
• Measures relating to domestic politically exposed persons;
• Requirement for countries to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption.