FATF is a global standard setting body for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) measures. Over 160 participants representing the financial sector and other businesses, civil society, and representatives of FATF members and observers attended the meeting.

On 26-27 March 2015 the European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF) hosted the ‘Private Sector Consultative Forum (PSCF)’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Brussels.

FATF is a global standard setting body for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) measures. Over 160 participants representing the financial sector and other businesses, civil society, and representatives of FATF members and observers attended the meeting.

Amongst the key topics of discussion were:

• The prevention and combatting of terrorist financing;
• Access to banking services and the “de-risking” phenomenon;
• The FATF risk based approached for money or value transfer services (MVTS);
• Virtual currencies; and
• Innovations in financial services.

The FATF private sector conference provided an excellent opportunity for EPIF to underline its growing role in the European regulatory debate on retail payments as the representative body of more than 250 non-bank payment operators in Europe. The PSCF provides a unique platform for the FATF organization and the private sector to discuss many critical AML/CFT issues affecting the EU payments industry.

Wolfgang Maschek, EPIF Technical Committee Chair, said “The conference participants come from around the globe and represent some of the most influential regulators and policy-makers relevant to our financial industry. EPIF is taking proactive steps to address issues relevant to the current EU payments agenda, but also regarding future priorities. We are grateful to FATF for the opportunity to engage in this important dialogue, and we will actively contribute to ongoing and future projects”

EPIF would like to thank each of the speakers and moderators for their input and the participants for their engaging discussion which contributed to the success of the event.  EPIF would also like to thank two of its members specifically – Western Union and PayPal – for their support.

Related FATF press release.