EU Global Facility on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing

Context

Vulnerabilities within national Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks pose great risks to the stability and reliability of financial systems and constitute a direct threat to world security. Despite significant progress, many countries still face legal, institutional, and coordination challenges, while awareness of AML/CFT issues and cooperation and information sharing between key actors and institutions remains weak. These gaps are exploited by terrorists and organised criminal networks.  

In 2017, the European Commission established the EU Global Facility on AML/CFT, an operational tool to assist third countries in strengthening their AML/CFT system in line with international standards, notably recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), EU directives on AML/CFT and United Nations Security Council resolutions.  

The Facility is demand-driven, delivering tailored support based on specific country requests, detailed needs assessments, and in coordination with other technical assistance providers. 

Overall objective

This project aims to support third countries in their efforts to prevent money laundering and cut off access to funding for individual terrorists and terrorist organisations, in line with international standards. 

Specific objectives

• To strengthen AML/CFT legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks.
• To build analytical and institutional capacity of AML/CFT actors including regulatory authorities, financial intelligence units (FIUs), law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, asset recovery bodies, civil society, private sector and media.
• To increase national, regional, and international cooperation and networks on AML/CFT issues.  

Concrete activities

• Support to national legislative and regulatory drafting, institutional capacity-building and mentorship, among others, covering the entire financial intelligence and penal chain from the detection, assessment, investigation, decision and recovery stages.
• Support to sectoral risk assessments on numerous topics such as virtual assets, the non-profit sector and beneficial ownership.
• Regional and global events organised in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe, in partnership with FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs), providing valuable platforms for exchange of best practices and regional/global cooperation.
• Publications developed on cutting-edge topics such as Beneficial Ownership, Reversed Burden of Proof, Custodial Financial Investigations, Cryptocurrencies and FATF Recommendation 8 on terrorist financing in the Non-Profit sector, among others.