On 8 April 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published its April report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The report sets out the FATF’s ongoing work to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

Key points raised by the FATF include:

• virtual assets pose serious money laundering and terrorist financing risks that criminals, money launderers, terrorists, and other illicit actors exploit. The FATF will address by June 2019 challenges in investigations and confiscation of cases where criminals exploit virtual assets for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes;
• the FATF will update by June 2019 its 2015 Risk-based Approach Guidance on Virtual Currencies to continue assisting jurisdictions and the private sector, in implementing a risk-based approach to regulating virtual asset service providers;
• the FATF will improve the effective implementation of the FATF anti-money laundering standards by holding countries accountable for failures to address their deficiencies;
• the FATF will publish guidance on the risk-based approach for lawyers, accountants, and trust and companies service providers by June 2019. This will focus on how these professions should apply safeguards, in a risk-based way, to prevent the misuse of their services by criminals;
• the FATF expects to finalise its work to identify best practices on beneficial ownership by October 2019; and
• the FATF is preparing guidance on the application of the FATF Recommendations in a digital ID context. This guidance will clarify the principal requirements for digital ID solutions, as well as the circumstances under which digital forms of identification and verification could be used during the customer due diligence process.