FATF moves to cut terrorist finances
An emergency meeting of the Financial Action Task Force this morning stated its mission was to 'strangle and cut the supply of money and assets that the Lifeblood of terrorists'.
The meeting, held in Washington and involving Britain as one of the 29 members of FATF, was convened from Monday to Wednesday this week to develop strategies dealing with terrorist funds.
Measures have already been announced by Gordon Brown in Britain including the creation of a new task force using forensic accountants to work with the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
Attending the meeting, US Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill recommended that FATF, a sister body to the Paris based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, set benchmark standards for fighting terrorist funding.
He said: ‘FATF is uniquely positioned to take up the challenges of terrorist financing. Our goal must be nothing less than the disruption and elimination of the financial frameworks that support terrorism and its abhorrent acts.’
Though details are sketchy it appears FATF will be looking for ways of increasing cooperation and trust between government security services and financial institutions.
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UK joins FATF in meeting on terror