The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) will hold an extraordinary Plenary meeting in Washington, D.C. on 29-30 October 2001 to address initiatives to combat terrorist financing.
A release issued from the FATF’s Paris Headquarters today indicated that this emergency meeting represents the organisation’s commitment to ensure that the international financial system cannot be misused by terrorists and those who channel funds to them.
*”The FATF, the leading international body in the global fight against money laundering, will provide its expertise and energy to the related battle against the financing of terrorism,”* said Mrs. Clarie Lo, the President of FATF.
Although the meeting will be a closed session, a news conference is expected to follow the extraordinary plenary.
The FATF is an independent international body whose Secretariat is housed at the OECD. The twenty nine member countries and governments of the FATF are: Argentina; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Luxembourg; Mexico; the Kingdom of the Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Portugal; Singapore; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom and the United States. Two international organisations are also members of the FATF: the European Commission and the Gulf Co-operation Council.
This coming weekend, the Group of Seven (G-7) Finance Ministers plan to meet in Washington to discuss the role that the FATF can play in the fight against the financing of terrorism. They are expected to address the possible establishment of terrorist asset-tracking centres in the other G-7 countries, similar to that created in the United States after the September 11 terrorist attacks.