External dynamics of the Financial Action Task Force (1989-2018)

Abstract

The Financial Action Task Force emerged in 1989 as part of international efforts to address the rise of transnational organized crime, mainly associated with money laundering, during the 1980s. Since then, it has evolved into an intergovernmental body responsible for setting standards and promoting the implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat not only money laundering, but also the financing of terrorism, proliferation financing and other threats to the integrity of the international financial system. In its development, the Group has shown a permanent relationship with recognized international organizations, forums of political agreement at the highest level, while it has achieved the sustained incorporation of jurisdictions and the extension to all continents and regions of the planet of its established procedures against financial risk. This has considerably favored its greater recognition and that of its regulations as regulators of the security of the international financial system.