Daniel Glaser, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury testified before the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade and The Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology on Wednesday.

The focus of the testimony by the Treasury Officials was the use of sanctions and other financial tools as a means of combating proliferation and terrorism, which they described as *”two of the most deadly threats of our time.”* During their testimony, Messrs. Messrs. Glaser and Szubin covered a broad range of topics, including:

• The work of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence;

• A General Overview of Sanctions and Their Impact;

• Safeguarding the Financial System from Terrorism and WMD Proliferation Threats by Identifying and Closing Vulnerabilities

**Financial Action Task Force**

The ***Strengthening and Expanding of International AML/CFT Standards*** was a key component of the last component, with particular note made of the growing international nature of the financial system, and the need to work continuously with other financial centers around the world to establish and maintain effective international standards to protect the international financial system from various sources and conduits of illicit financing. In coordination with the interagency community, Treasury reportedly primarily advances this strategic objective through the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It also supports the progressive development of international standards against terrorist and illicit financing at the United Nations (UN). *”The FATF sets the global standard for combating terrorist financing and money laundering and provides us with a unique opportunity to engage our international counterparts in this effort,”* they said.

The US Treasury maintains an active leadership role in the Task Force, and has consistently engaged the FATF to expand and strengthen international standards to address the systemic vulnerabilities that terrorists and other criminals exploit, including through the development of Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing and the revision and strengthening of the FATF 40 Recommendations.

Earlier this year, Treasury launched discussions within the FATF on how the existing Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) international standards should be supplemented, amended or applied to address the vulnerabilities associated with WMD proliferation finance.