In a speech made at a Chatham House conference on Illicit Financial Flows (March 1-2, 2021), the Executive Secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), David Lewis, said that members at the just-concluded FATF Plenary had agreed "to a new work stream on the unintended consequences of poorly implemented AML/CFT measures – from financial exclusion to the abuse of counter terrorism measures to suppress civil society - and this work will consider on an ongoing basis how these risks can be better identified and mitigated." For the full draft of the speech, click here.

The Global NPO Coalition on FATF welcomes this news and is looking forward to learning more around the modalities of the functioning of this work stream.

For more background on this, including the cases of misuse, read our latest newsletter here.