Israel selected to anti-illegal funding organization FATF

Israel has been selected to join an elite global task force for combating terror financing and money-laundering, the Justice Ministry announced on Monday.

Joining the group makes Israel an even more attractive and safe place for investments and increases the cooperation and legal assistance that Israel can expect from other countries, said the ministry.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d’action financière, is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In 2001 its mandate expanded to include terrorism financing.

Explaining its objectives, the FATF says it sets “standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.”

In other words, “the FATF is… a ‘policy-making body’ which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.”

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said at a press conference on Monday, “joining the organization is a national achievement with diplomatic implications which contributes to the ability of Israel to combat terror financing in the international arena and strengthens the Israeli economy.”

Dr. Shlomit Wegman-Rotner, head of the Authority Prohibiting Money-Laundering and Terror Financing, said that a positive FATF report on Israel which came out in tandem with accepting Israel into the ranks “described the decisive leap forward which Israel undertook in the past two decades” regarding policing the arena of finance.

She said she was proud that her authority was noted as the second most effective national authority in the world for fighting illicit finance.

The ministry said FATF had given Israel high marks for international cooperation, for internal domestic cooperation between differing law enforcement authorities and for mapping out the threats it faced in a sophisticated manner.

According to the statement, between 2013-2017, 26 persons and entities were convicted in 37 cases filed with terror-financing charges due to work carried out by Israel’s Authority Prohibiting Money-Laundering and Terror Financing.