https://www.amlintelligence.com/2024/07/news-former-senior-fatf-figure-claims-little-evidence-its-recommendations-effectively-prevent-money-laundering/

DAVID Lewis, former executive secretary at FATF, has claimed there is “little evidence” that technical compliance with the agency’s recommendations leads to effective AML outcomes.

Mr Lewis highlighted that jurisdictions rated largely or fully compliant with all 40 FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Recommendations included the likes of the Cayman Islands, Qatar and the Bahamas – all of which have been criticised internationally for allowing money laundering.

In 2022 Mr Lewis joined Kroll where he is global head of anti-money laundering.

“Only 12 out of more than 200 jurisdictions are compliant with the FATF standards,” he said.

“This is interesting for those looking to understand the relationship between compliance and effectiveness. They are not the same.”

One of those noted by Mr Lewis as being fully compliant was Latvia.

In response Ilze Znotina, a lawyer and chair of the European Regional Chapter of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, said that compliance is the “foundation for resilience and sustainability”.

In the article published in AML Intelligence Ms Znotina, who is also the former director of FIU Latvia and was a delegate to MONEYVAL said: “Success in enforcement still depends on many factors, but in the context of global crime, the core necessity is truly effective international cooperation and information exchange,” she said.

Ms Znotina wrote that guidelines such as those issued by the FATF are crucial in guiding behaviour, and added that different standards of implementation should be expected of smaller countries compared to larger ones.

“We need a strong foundation of societal values and principles to guide us through uncertain times, increasing our chances of preventing or halting conflicts and uncertainty about our future,” she said.

In response, Mr Lewis told AML Intelligence that he agreed with Ms Znotina’s comments.

He said his point was not to criticise smaller countries – rather, it was that: “There is little evidence in FATF evaluations to show a strong correlation between technical compliance and effectiveness.

“The results of FATF evaluations show that you can be judged effective – [such as the UK, US, France, Israel, etc –  without being technically compliant,” he said.

“[I] intended to encourage debate about the value of chasing technical compliance but also on what it means to be truly effective.”

FATF had not responded immediately to a request for comment at the time of publication.