On October 1-3, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will hold its first Plenary under the Swedish Presidency of Mr. Claes Norgren. This meeting, to be held during the Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjo, will discuss guidance to countries adopting and implementing measures to enable their authorities to seize and confiscate assets linked to terrorism financing.
It is anticipated that this Plenary also will examine the means of supplying technical assistance to those countries which request help implementing and enforcing their national anti-terrorist financing legislations.
Additionally, the FATF plans to assess the progress made by the non-cooperative countries and territories in the fight against money laundering.
The FATF’s Secretariat has announced that following the Plenary, its Executive Secretary, Patrick Moulette, will join Mr. Norgren to discuss the outcome of the meetings at a news conference to be held at 2 p.m., Friday 3 October at the Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjo.
As Chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Bahamas Attorney General the Hon. Alfred Sears, M.P., has used the office of that chair to call for a global forum of all the member states of the United Nations to assist in the development of international standards *“that are acceptable and which can be given universal expression”* — and the subsequent monitoring of their implementation by members of the international community.
The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) is an organisation of twenty-six states of the Caribbean basin which have agreed to implement common countermeasures to address the problem of criminal money laundering. It was established as the result of meetings convened in Aruba in May 1990 and Jamaica in November 1992.
Currently, CFATF members are Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, The Bahamas (current Chair), Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Republic of Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, The Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, The Turks & Caicos Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela.
According to Minister Sears, basically, the CFATF seeks to assist Caribbean jurisdictions in attaining compliance with emerging international financial regulation standards.
The FATF is an independent international body whose Secretariat is housed at the OECD. The thirty-one 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; the Russian Federation; Singapore; South Africa; 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.