1. Singapore holds the Presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for a fixed two-year term between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2024, with Mr T. Raja Kumar, Senior Advisor (International), Ministry of Home Affairs serving as the FATF President.
2. The FATF Ministerial Meeting on 18 April 2024 held in Washington DC was chaired by Minister Indranee Rajah (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for National Development).
3. At the meeting, FATF Ministers adopted the FATF Ministerial Declaration, noting that the FATF has delivered on its strategic priorities under the Singapore Presidency, and endorsed the FATF’s strategic priorities for the next biennium. Ministers reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to combat financial crime, and fully supported the FATF as the global standard-setter for preventing and combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (ML/TF/PF). Ministers also pledged to swiftly implement the FATF Standards to effectively tackle ML/TF/PF, and to hold accountable any members that fail to do so. The Ministerial Declaration can be accessed
here.
4. The significant progress achieved by the FATF during the Singapore Presidency includes:
(i) Strengthening the FATF Standards on asset recovery
(ii) Improving global beneficial ownership transparency for legal persons and legal arrangements
(iii) Responding to contemporary risks such as cyber-enabled fraud, ransomware financing, crowdfunding for terrorism, and misuse of citizenship and residency by investment schemes
(iv) Deepening cooperation with international partners such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), UNODC and INTERPOL, among others
(v) Strengthening the relationship with the FATF-Style Regional Bodies
