The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published guidance on criminalising terrorist financing.

FATF Recommendation 5 (R5) and its Interpretative Note (INR 5) set out in detail the specific elements required to comply with the obligation to criminalise terrorist financing based on the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions. However, R5 contains elements that go beyond the international legal obligations.

The guidance is intended to assist countries in the implementation of the requirements by setting out their basis and rationale as found in the relevant United Nations instruments and FATF typologies studies on terrorist financing, giving guidance as to their interpretation, and offering some examples of how countries with different legal systems have implemented the requirements at the national level.

Each section of the guidance begins with the relevant provisions of R5 and INR 5, identifies their basis, explains their rationale (including how to interpret them), and then gives some concrete examples of how specific requirements have been implemented in the context of different countries’ legal systems. The guidance also cites examples from specific countries which illustrate that there are a variety of different ways to implement the requirements of R5 / INR 5. The examples cited are not exhaustive, and countries are not expected to follow them exactly. They are provided to demonstrate how countries with different legal systems have criminalised terrorist financing, in line with R5 / INR 5, in their national context.

View FATF guidance on criminalising terrorist financing, 24 October 2016