FATF meeting to focus on terrorism financing

FATF meeting to focus on terrorism financing

Aude Genet, Agence France-Presse, Paris

The international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) is to examine the financing of terrorism at a plenary meeting next week in Hong Kong.

Following the Sept.11 attacks in the United States the Group of Seven industrialized states determined that FATF, created in 1989 primarily to combat drug money and tax evasion, should play a key role in the campaign to snuff out financial backing for terrorism.

At a meeting in late October, the FATF, based in Paris under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, adopted eight recommendations aimed at preventing terrorists and their supporters from obtaining funds.

The Hong Kong session, which opens on Wednesday and closes on Friday, will assess the application of the measures by member states, the FATF said in statement.

Only the opening and the closing of the meeting will be open to the public.

The group had recommended that its 29 member countries adopt measures to freeze funds and other assets belonging to terrorists and their financial backers.

Financial institutions were to warn authorities when funds were suspected of being used for financing terrorism.

States were asked to check the adequacy of laws regarding entities capable of being used to finance terrorism.

Members, including the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council, were to undergo a "self-evaluation" before Dec.31 on their position on the recommendations and to commit themselves to their application by June 2002.

The Hong Kong meeting is also to "examine and review a list uncooperative countries and territories whose anti-money laundering systems pose serious lapses or refuse to participate in efforts to fight money laundering," the FATF said.

There are currently 19 countries on the FATF's list of uncooperative countries, which exposes them to the possibility of sanctions.