FATF October Plenary to Discuss Crowdfunding for Terrorist Financing and Illicit Flows from Cyber-enabled Fraud

October Plenary of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) will take place from 25-27 October 2023 marking the culmination of FATF week which begins on October 23. This will be the fourth plenary meeting of FATF under the leadership of  President T. Raja Kumar during his two-year term in Singapore.

Key themes of the FATF plenary will include addressing the challenges of crowdfunding for terrorist financing, curbing illicit financial flows facilitated by cyber-enabled fraud, improving standards to ward off the exploitation of non-profit organizations, and enhancing asset recovery.

Delegates from the FATF’s worldwide network, encompassing over 200 member jurisdictions and observer associations including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, INTERPOL, and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units will attend the event. The representatives will also analyze measures to combat money laundering and prevent terrorist financing in Brazil.

According to the press release, a week-long series of meetings will address pivotal concerns to assist countries in detecting, monitoring, and preventing the financial channels that support criminal activities and terrorism.

1. Raja Kumar will hold a press conference at 17:00, on 27 October 2023 to declare the outcomes of the Plenary post its conclusion.

The third Plenary of the FATF under the Presidency of T. Raja Kumar took place from 21-23 June 2023 at FATF headquarters in Paris. Representatives from over 200 member jurisdictions of the FATF global network and observer organizations participated in the meetings.

The battle against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation demands a global, unified response. Collaboration among all countries in the Global Network is of utmost importance to tackle these risks collectively. These were the major concerns addressed during the June plenary.

The FATF third plenary also considered and endorsed the evaluation report on Luxembourg, which gauged the country’s endeavors in combatting money laundering and terrorist financing and their alignment with FATF recommendations.

Crowdfunding is one of the common ways through which terrorists and extremist organizations gain access to resources in order to fund their nefarious motives. It is imperative for international organizations and state governments to have a consensus on how to address terrorist financing through crowdfunding in a way that doesn’t impact charity organizations and other Nobel causes.

Furthermore, enabling the flow of illicit finance through cybercrime has also gained traction among criminals in the last couple of years. Recently, Interpol took down phishing as a service platform 16shop that sold phishing kits to cybercriminals to enable them to launch phishing attacks. The event underscores the need for taking action against cybercrimes of such scale as they not only allow a flow of illicit finance but also can rob people of their hard-earned wealth. Given the scale of damage that cybercrime can cause it seems prudent for FATF to make it part of its agenda during October plenary.
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