The FATF notes with grave concern and condemns the violent terrorist attack last week that killed at least 40 Indian security forces in Pulwama in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.  From this and other recent attacks on schools in Afghanistan and Nigeria, hotels in Kenya, houses of worship in Indonesia, courthouses in Turkey and concerts and train stations in Europe, terrorism continues to threaten societies and citizens around the world. While all these attacks kill, maim, and inspire fear, they cannot occur without money and the means to move funds between terrorist supporters.

This vulnerability makes identifying terrorists’ financial flows and depriving them of funds a crucial tool in disrupting terrorist attacks before they even occur. Financial intelligence helps governments around the world to map out the financial networks of terrorists and has played a critical role in identifying and disrupting foreign terrorist fighter facilitation and other terrorist networks in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Further, using financial and law enforcement tools to cut off terrorists from their sources of revenue weakens the networks and infrastructure needed for these groups to accomplish their destructive goals.

The changing nature of the threats posed by ISIL, AQ and affiliates also demonstrate how the risks affecting different jurisdictions around the world continue to change. In order to help jurisdictions better identify and understand the nature of the risks that are affecting them, and how they are developing over time, the FATF will finalise and publish guidance on TF Risk Assessments in June. The current round of assessments of countries implementation of the FATF Standards has demonstrated that significant vulnerabilities remain in countries CFT regimes. Nearly two-thirds of countries assessed are still not taking effective action to investigate and prosecute terrorist financing, and 80% are not effective in relation to targeted financial sanctions. Under the US Presidency, the FATF will hold a workshop to improve countries capacity to investigate and prosecute terrorist financing. This workshop will build on FATF’s efforts to ensure that the criminal offence of terrorist financing is being aggressively pursued by all jurisdictions. 

The FATF and its global Standards to counter the financing of terrorism (CFT) play a central role in this effort. ….FATF-Against Terrorist Financing

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