Review Of The Fund S Strategy On Anti Money Laundering And Combating The Financing Of Terrorism

The staff report provides an overview of the Fund's AML/CFT program, since the last review conducted in 2014 and seeks the endorsement of the Executive Board to continue on the basis of the directions given in 2014, with one minor adjustment proposed in relation to Fund-led AML/CFT assessments.

The Fund’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) program represents an important contribution to the international community’s response to money laundering and terrorist financing over the past decade. The program originally focused primarily on (a) AML/CFT assessments – as part of the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) program and of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) – and (b) capacity development activities. Following guidance provided by the Board in 2011, money laundering, terrorist financing and related predicate crimes issues (hereinafter also referred to as financial integrity issues) are being raised in the context of surveillance when they are judged to affect domestic and balance of payments stability. Moreover, some recent Fund-supported programs have also incorporated financial integrity issues.

The staff report provides an overview of the Fund's AML/CFT program, since the last review conducted in 2014 and seeks the endorsement of the Executive Board to continue on the basis of the directions given in 2014, with one minor adjustment proposed in relation to Fund-led AML/CFT assessments.

This paper reviews the Fund’s efforts to safeguard financial integrity and proposes the way forward for the Fund’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Strategy. For over 20 years, the IMF has recognized that effective AML/CFT frameworks, and financial integrity more broadly, are key to the soundness and stability of the financial sector and to prevent the negative macroeconomic implications of financial crimes on the broader economy of members, progressively integrating this work across all its core functions and in a broad set of Fund policies. The paper takes stock of the implementation of the IMF's AML/CFT strategy since 2018. It also proposes deepening the integration of financial integrity issues and an enhanced focus on the macroeconomic impact of AML/CFT issues for the way forward.

The background papers support the stocktaking analysis and the proposed way forward for the 2023 review of the IMF's AML/CFT Strategy. The five background papers provide in-depth discussions on the following key topics: (i) illicit financial flows; (ii) the impact of money laundering in financial stability; (iii) synergies between financial integrity issues and other Fund policies and work; (iv) the Fund’s collaboration with key partners in the AML/CFT global policy architecture; and (v) stakeholders’ views of the effectiveness of the Fund’s AML/CFT engagement.

The Fund’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) program has significantly contributed to the international community’s response to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This paper reviews how the Fund’s AML/CFT program has evolved during the past five years and discusses how the Fund could move forward in this area. The past five years have witnessed significant changes to the Fund’s AML/CFT technical assistance program. It is now being delivered more strategically than in the past and is almost exclusively funded by external resources. Its central pillar is now the AML/CFT Topical Trust Fund.

This paper responds to a request from Executive Directors to review the quality and consistency of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) assessment reports prepared by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and FATF style regional bodies (FSRBs), and the effectiveness of coordination with FATF/FSRBs. The review found a high degree of variability in the quality and consistency of reports prepared by the different assessor bodies as well as within the same assessor group. While a large majority of reports were of high- or medium quality with respect to key components of the assessments, the treatment of ratings gave rise to greater problems. A number of initiatives have been taken or are underway to improve the quality and consistency of assessments by all assessor bodies, including: the standardization of documentation, the strengthening of peer/internal reviews, and the intensification of assessor training.

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