THE Financial Action Task Force (FATF), on Monday, in coordination with relevant bodies from the United Nations, organised an Experts’ Meeting on Targeted Financial Sanctions. 

FATF President Vladimir Nechaev chaired the meeting, during which the United Nations, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and the FATF Secretariat made presentations. Representatives from 51 countries and 16 organisations attended the meeting.
The objective of the meeting was to bring together targeted financial sanction experts at the global level, to:

* Increase collaboration, coordination and sharing of information between relevant bodies,
* Discuss possible reasons for low level of compliance with targeted financial sanctions,
* Hear success stories and challenges from countries,
* Better understand the commonalities between relevant FATF Recommendations in this area, and
* Discuss awareness raising on the importance of the next round of mutual evaluations.

If implemented effectively and with respect for applicable human rights provisions by countries and the private sector, targeted financial sanctions are an important means to deprive terrorist and proliferation financiers of their funds, thereby protecting citizens from the threats of crime, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
The following topics were discussed:

* Overall, deficiencies with the implementation of targeted financial sanction requirements during the previous round of assessments have not necessarily been addressed sufficiently. Compliance with these requirements will need to show significant improvement during the next round of assessments.
* Despite important technical differences between relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, the commonalities between the targeted financial sanctions provisions would allow countries to implement FATF Recommendations 6 and 7 using umbrella legislation applicable to the different sets of targeted financial sanctions.
* When assessing compliance with the targeted financial sanctions provisions of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, publicly available information from FATF/FSRBs, IMF and World Bank assessment reports should be used as source information.
Also, experts indicated a need to improve global compliance with the preventive measures contained in two of FATF’s recommendations, including by:
* Increasing the resources devoted to establishing targeted financial sanctions regimes
* Strengthening political will
* Ensuring that measures to implement targeted financial sanction requirements are based on evidentiary standards of reasonable grounds/basis, and are not reliant on a criminal standard
* Establishing domestic procedures to allow for the review of classified information by appropriate arbiters, and
* When designating domestically, or requesting other countries to take freezing action pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolution 1373, provide sufficient, high-quality information explaining the grounds and basis for the designation.
* Countries shared good practices on how to implement the general United Nations and FATF framework for targeted financial sanctions to ensure its compatibility with domestic due process, human rights, or other important fundamental domestic legal provisions, which is a necessary condition for an effective targeted financial sanctions system.
* When implementing targeted financial sanctions requirements, countries need to focus on the aims and objectives of the requirements to ensure a designated person/entity does not abuse the international financial system for illicit purposes.
Participants acknowledged the need to continue cooperation to support the effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions:
* Participants agreed on the need to continue the close practical cooperation between the FATF/FSRBs and United Nations. The active guidance of the relevant UN bodies in FATF is essential to ensure a consistent implementation of targeted financial sanctions across different bodies.
* The United Nations and the FATF will continue to hold annual meetings, the next one being in New York in December 2014 with a visit of the FATF President to the relevant United Nations bodies.
* Where this is feasible, the FATF and the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED) will continue considering joining in each other’s assessments.
FATF’s ongoing plenary meeting ends on Friday.