The FATF group suspended Russia’s participation in the list of member countries of the organization.
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) has suspended the membership of the Russian Federation indefinitely, on which Ukraine has long insisted.
This decision was preceded by the extraordinary work of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the State Financial Monitoring Service: since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, in general, more than 200 appeals have been sent to FATF member countries and various international organizations to support Russia’s exclusion from the FATF and its inclusion in the FATF sanctions list.
Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada, the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance repeatedly appealed to the organization with calls to exclude the Russian Federation from the number of member countries and include it in the “black list”.
FATF is an interstate organization that develops world standards in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as assessing the compliance of national financial systems with these standards.
The FATF recognized Russia’s actions as unacceptable, contrary to the basic principles of the organization and violating the obligations of the members of the organization for international cooperation and mutual respect.
The suspension of FATF membership is a clear signal that all entities must exercise extreme caution when attempting to make any transactions with the Russian financial system.
If it was not obvious to anyone that Russia is a risky jurisdiction, then the FATF decision means that global businesses should step up due diligence and risk assessment when dealing with Russia, and global jurisdictions should step up their regulation and update risk advice for markets. We continue to work so that the next step would be the inclusion of Russia in the FATF “black list” in order to protect the global financial system,” said Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko.
Suspension of membership in the FATF will require member countries to apply increased due diligence and implement countermeasures to protect the international financial system from the constant risks posed by Russia.
FATF members are 36 countries (Ukraine is not a member of the organization).
Source: Racurs
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