FATF President, Elisa de Anda Madrazo of Mexico, highlights FATF's inclusive approach at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Brazil, July 2024 

25 July 2024 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Thank you Chair,

Let me start by thanking you for your wonderful hospitality in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro.

Mexico assumed the Presidency of the Financial Action Task Force on July 1st and will hold it for the next 2 years.

I will focus my intervention on financial inclusion as this will be one of my main focuses when delivering the FATF new strategic priorities that were endorsed in April by the FATF Ministers, including G20 Ministers at this table.   

Estimates by the UN suggest that illicit proceeds account to 3 to 5% of global GDP.

This estimate puts into perspective the importance of the FATF’s mandate, which is to support countries in preserving financial integrity for the benefit of the safety and security of our economies and communities, and also for sustainable economic and social development.

Securing financial integrity is not a trade-off with financial inclusion.

That is why the FATF is working to close the door to dirty money while keeping the door open for clean funds to flow through the regulated system.

That door must remain open because the exclusion of the financial system deprives people of access to needed funding and increases inequalities.

When people are excluded from the financial system they have to turn to cash and are pushed to unregulated channels which are outside our control and our line of sight. This increases risks.

To strike this right balance, the FATF is:

• First, reinforcing its Standard to clarify the need to apply a truly risk-based approach when designing financial integrity measures. This includes the use of simplified due diligence measures.
• Second, we are contributing to the G20’s roadmap on cross-border payments and updating our Standards in this area. Our goal is to foster faster and cheaper payment systems that embed integrity by design.

To do it and to get this right, we will leverage new technologies that can facilitate traceability and quick access to beneficial ownership data by relevant authorities and we are collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders – including payment experts from the public and private sectors.

The FATF will rely on the strength that comes from being a global organization and having virtually the whole world - over 200 jurisdictions – that have signed up to meeting our Standards. In this effort, we will support low-capacity countries that face unique challenges. For example:

• We are developing guidance on how to be effective in combatting illicit finance from a low-capacity country context and dimension.
• We have made changes to how we prioritize countries for increased scrutiny to reduce the pressure on less developed countries.
• We are helping to join forces between Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and other technical assistance providers to ensure low-capacity countries have the support to build effective frameworks.
• We are supporting jurisdictions to implement regulation for virtual asset service providers.

By lifting capacity to implement the FATF standards we provide all countries with the tools that empower them, for example, to:

• recover resources stolen through corruption or tax evasion.
• deny criminals from the profits of environmental crime; and
• deprive terrorists from the resources to plan and execute attacks.

In short, financial integrity is a key dimension of an integrated approach to developing a contemporary and inclusive financial system in which no country is left behind.