The FATF Recommendations and the Development of International Standards on Terrorist Financing

The problem of terrorist financing has come to the attention of academics and policy ever since 9/11. Since then, heightened countermeasures have been introduced by governments to disrupt terrorist funds, resulting in new efforts made by terrorist organisations to launder money and finance terrorism. Since 2001, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has led the global fight against terrorist financing. The results achieved by FATF provide a first-class example of effective measures in response to the specific challenges posed by money laundering and terrorist financing, paving at the same time the way to future policy initiatives in the field. While providing an overview of the current threats of terrorist financing – as well as analysing its linkages with money laundering – this chapter details how the FATF is leading the international fight against terrorist financing, by providing globally recognised AML/CTF standards and tools including the best practice guidance, peer review evaluations, and typologies reports.