On 29 June 2017, we blogged that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was consulting on draft guidance for private sector information sharing. The consultation closed on 31 July 2017.

The FATF has now published the final version of its guidance for private sector information sharing. The guidance sets out the challenges to information sharing and provides guidance both in the context of group wide and between financial institutions not part of the same group.

The guidance considers:

• general information sharing issues. These include legal issues, operational challenges and challenges for supervisors;
• information sharing within financial groups. The guidance sets out expectations of FATF Recommendations 18, 20 and 21 relating to information sharing within financial groups. These include sharing information on suspicions that funds are the proceeds of crime or related to terrorist financing and the confidentiality of suspicious transaction reports;
• information sharing between financial institutions not in the same group. The guidance sets out expectations of FATF Recommendations 14, 16 and 17. The guidance also describes the benefits of voluntarily sharing additional information and how this can be facilitated; and
• information sharing beyond the FATF Recommendations. The FATF sets out guidance on circumstances in which financial institutions might share information where this is not required by the FATF Recommendations and potential issues arising from this.

Annex 1 of the guidance articulates how differences in data protection and privacy (DPP) regimes or their application can affect information flow. Annex 2 includes country examples and approaches on addressing some of these challenges, including of national DPP and anti-money laundering authorities working together to meet their respective objective. It also sets out innovative practices adopted by countries to promote group-wide information sharing and between financial institutions which are not part of the same group. Annex 2 also contains examples of established mechanisms and processes to ensure guidance and feedback for the private sector, which helps facilitate better information sharing among all stakeholders.

View FATF finalises guidance on information sharing between financial institutions, 3 November 2017