The Financial Action Task Force said Friday that it issued guidance on how countries and the private sector should handle the money-laundering risks associated with prepaid cards, mobile payments and digital currencies.
The document examines how these payment products and services work, and how to regulate and supervise their use, the FATF said. When preparing the guidance, the FATF consulted with the private sector, it said.
• “These payment methods are increasingly important for global commerce, but may also have the potential of being used for money laundering and terrorist financing,” said a statement on Friday from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The FATF, an international body that sets standards on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policy, met this week in Oslo, its last plenary with Norwegian Bjørn Aamo as president. Russia’s Vladimir Nechaev, the vice president, will take over.
Countries that fail to implement FATF recommendations run the risk of being labeled as high-risk or uncooperative jurisdictions, thereby making it more costly and difficult for those nations to do business with the banking systems of the body’s member states. The FATF’s members include the U.S., Mexico, France and the U.K.
In addition to the prepaid guidance,
the FATF updated
• a white paper on best practices for implementing sanctions related to terrorist financing and another on protecting non-profit organizations from abuse by terrorist groups.
The FATF also issued
• guidance to help implement recommendations related to the financial risks posed by politically exposed people, or PEPs, and to implement financial provisions in United Nations Security Council resolutions related to weapons proliferation.
no longer being subject to ongoing monitoring
• At the plenary, five countries — Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand — were announced as no longer being subject to ongoing monitoring from the FATF.
• The body congratulated each country, welcoming their “significant progress” in improving anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing regimes, and establishing the legal and regulatory framework each said it would do in an action plan.
Also, the FATF isn’t satisfied with progress on action plans by
• Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, saying if they don’t take sufficient action by October they will be labeled “out of compliance,” putting them at risk of blacklisting.
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