Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) held a joint Experts Meeting on Corruption in Paris

PARIS, 20-10-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) held a joint Experts Meeting on Corruption in Paris on 17 October 2015. This is the fifth time that the FATF and G20 ACWG have held such an event, which brings together anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) experts and anti-corruption experts to discuss issues of common interest. For the first time, experts from the private sector were also invited to exchange views, knowledge and experiences on combating corruption and the laundering of related proceeds. As gatekeepers to the financial system, financial institutions play an important role in the fight against both corruption and money laundering.

Participants in this robust dialogue included 103 delegates from 29 jurisdictions and 7 organisations as well as 16 representatives from the private sector. The meeting was chaired jointly by the G20 ACWG Co-Chairs, Mr. Mete Demirci (Turkey) and Mr. Robert Leventhal (United States), and the FATF President, Mr. Je-Yoon Shin (Korea).

The key objective of this meeting was to better understand how financial institutions fulfill their role in the fight against corruption through an exchange of views, knowledge, and experiences with the private sector on their implementation of measures to combat corruption and the laundering of related proceeds and AML/CFT programs.

During the day-long series of discussions, representatives of financial institutions shared their experiences in detecting and deterring the proceeds of corruption. Discussions also addressed corruption issues in the context of correspondent banking, both in transactions as well as when corruption is detected within a financial institution itself.

The participants discussed examples of how the proceeds of corruption attempt to enter the financial system, how they are identified once they enter the financial system, and associated challenges. Additionally, participants discussed how financial institutions approach anticorruption at the policy level as well as in terms of technical implementation, and how their implementation of AML/CFT measures, particularly requirements relating to politically-exposed persons (PEPs), contributes to these efforts.

The participants also discussed how the public sector’s approach can facilitate industry efforts to implement anticorruption and relevant AML/CFT requirements. The dialogue included discussions on mechanisms and practices for communicating anticorruption-related issues to industry and other stakeholders, including emerging and prevailing risks.

G20 delegates discussed the work of the G2‎0 ACWG as it pertains to the intersection of AML and corruption prevention and detection, such as development of G20 principles on beneficial ownership transparency consistent with FATF standards, and country specific implementation plans based on the principles.

The participants also discussed various tools that are available to assist financial institutions in leveraging AML/CFT measures to combat corruption, including the FATF Best Practices Paper: The Use of the FATF Recommendations to Combat Corruption , the FATF Guidance: Politically Exposed Persons (Recommendations 12 and 22), the FATF typologies report on Specific Risk Factors in the Laundering of Proceeds of Corruption – Assistance to reporting institutions, and the FATF typologies report on Laundering the Proceeds of Corruption.

The participants committed to pursuing their continued cooperation and dialogue on these issues, with a view to enhancing the implementation of measures to combat corruption and the laundering of related proceeds.

SOURCE: FATF-GAFI