As part of its plenary meeting earlier this months, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) declared it would reach out to the FinTech / RegTech communities.
FATF acknowledged that Technology-based innovations are rapidly changing the financial industry, introducing efficiencies and providing alternatives for traditional financial products. Consequently, it is important for the FATF to engage with the FinTech/RegTech communities to remain involved in these developments. A close partnership will allow FATF to be proactive in refining its standards to effectively regulate financial innovations. The FATF Plenary approved an initiative which will focus on the FATF President’s objective of developing a partnership with the FinTech/RegTech community. Such a partnership will build awareness within the industry of potential ML/TF risks and allow FATF to explore ways to meet the regulatory and supervisory challenges of new innovations.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF is therefore a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.
The FATF statement can be found here.