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4/18/2024

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the 2024 Financial Action Task Force Ministerial | U.S. Depart…

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the 2024
Financial Action Task Force Ministerial
April 18, 2024

WASHINGTON – Today, Ministers representing the 40 members of the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) met in Washington and rea irmed the FATFʼs role in protecting the global
financial system from illicit activity. Ministers committed the FATF to taking further action to
combat terrorist financing and endorsed additional work to prevent sanctions evasion related
to proliferation finance. Ministers also agreed to continue e orts to strengthen the legal and
operational frameworks for financial transparency and asset recovery to combat systemic
corruption and seize illicit proceeds. Finally, the Ministers agreed to increase resources for
the FATF to support the upcoming round of mutual evaluations.
The Ministers also reiterated their position that the Russian Federationʼs ongoing, illegal,
unprovoked, and unjustified invasion of Ukraine runs counter to the FATFʼs core principles and
represents a gross violation FATF Standards and Ministerial commitments. The Ministers
called for jurisdictions to remain vigilant of threats to the integrity, safety, and security of the
international financial system arising from the Russian Federationʼs war against Ukraine.

As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you, Minister Rajah. I want to welcome Indonesia as the newest FATF member and
commend the FATF in successfully meeting its 2022 ministerial commitment on global anticorruption e orts. I support the FATFʼs priorities in the Ministerial Declaration
and welcome increasing the core budget for the upcoming biennium as the FATF prepares to
undertake the next assessment round.
I am fully aware of the accountability and pressure that the FATF has brought to bear to
address the largest structural deficiency from our 2016 MER on transparency for legal
persons. I am proud that the FATF recognized Treasuryʼs long and diligent e orts to rectify
this major gap in our AML/CFT framework through the Corporate Transparency Act and the
CDD Rule.
I also believe it is essential that the FATF continue to emphasize terrorist financing work as a
core part of its mandate. We especially must do more to ensure that financial facilitators of
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4/18/2024

Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the 2024 Financial Action Task Force Ministerial | U.S. Depart…

terrorist organizations from ISIS to Hamas and Hizballah cannot access the global financial
system to further their agenda and cause harm to innocent civilians. In light of the escalatory
actions in the Middle East, it is important that the FATF continues to hold Iran accountable for
its failure to comply with the FATF standards. I also want to recognize the FATFʼs historic
decision in 2023 to suspend Russia from this body and to condemn Russiaʼs growing financial
connectivity with North Korea and Iran.
The FATFʼs work to combat WMD proliferation financing is now more important than ever. We
welcome additional e orts by the FATF to assist countries to mitigate proliferation financing
risks. Thank you.
Click here to read the full Declaration of the Ministers of the Financial Action Task Force for
April 2024

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