Workshop on the Revisions to the International Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Standards

On 12-14 March, 2013, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) played a leading role in the organisation in Tashkent of a large international training on the revised Financial Action Task Force (FATF) International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation.

The training was organised together with substantive and financial contributions from the Russian Federation, the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), the International Training and Methodology Centre for Financial Monitoring (ITMCFM), and the government of Uzbekistan. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, ITMCFM and OCEEA provided expert facilitators for the technical training sessions.

The training gathered 70 participants, including 25 from the financial intelligence units (FIUs), law enforcement authorities and central banks of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and China. Financial support for regional participants’ travel expenses was provided by the Russian Federation.

An additional 40 participants represented Uzbekistan’s Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, State Customs Committee, Prosecutor General’s Office, Administration of the President and other state agencies. The government of Uzbekistan provided all participants with transportation and contributed to other logistical expenses.

The training reviewed the changes contained in the FATF Recommendations, which were revised in 2012 to strengthen global safeguards and provide governments with stronger tools to take action against financial crime. Previously organised as 40 Recommendations and 9 Special Recommendations, the standards were reviewed and reorganised into 40 Recommendations which, when properly implemented, better enable countries to prevent, identify and suppress money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The training addressed the revisions to the FATF Recommendations in 13 thematic sessions which covered a range of topics including customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, politically exposed persons, beneficial ownership of legal persons, supervisory powers, law enforcement powers and international co-operation. The participants took advantage of the presence of a large number of experts to pose questions about the revised standards. Several participants engaged the experts in discussions about the changes required at the national level to comply with the revised international standards.