The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has agreed on an action plan to drive the "timely implementation" of its global standards for crypto, outcomes from its recent plenary meeting show.
The plenary for the global money laundering and financial crimes watchdog is made up of 206 members including observer organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
The decisions made at its plenary meeting, published on Friday, notes many countries had failed to implement FATF norms, including its controversial “travel rule,” which requires services providers to collect and share information of crypto transactors.
"The Plenary thus agreed on a roadmap to strengthen implementation of FATF Standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, which will include a stocktake of current levels of implementation across the global network," the watchdog said, adding that a report on its findings is due in the the first half of 2024.
FATF published its updated standards for crypto in 2019, but last June, it said only 11 of 98 surveyed jurisdictions were enforcing the travel rule, and urged them to act faster.
The report also noted that strong crypto regulation is key to disrupting financial flows from ransomware exploits, adding "criminals responsible are getting away undetected with large amounts of money, predominantly using virtual assets."
In its country-specific recommendations – mostly addressing sanctions compliance – the FATF said Jordan "should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies" for assessing money laundering risks involving crypto.
