Nouakchott, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania’s
04-05 December 2023
The 37th MENAFATF Plenary commenced today Monday 04 December 2023, in Nouakchott, Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The two-day meeting began with an opening speeches by H.E Mr. Mohamed Ould Bilal Massoud, First Minister of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mr. Mohamed Lamine Dahabi, MENAFATF President, Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania, and Chairman of the Mauritanian Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”), and Mr. Suliman Rashid AlJabrin, MENAFATF Executive Secretary. The Plenary is chaired by MENAFATF President. The meeting is attended by the heads of delegations, AML\CFT experts from member countries in addition to experts from the observer countries, led by the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”).
Within the framework of this gathering of experts, these meetings come as a real opportunity to strengthen and unify regional and international efforts led by the MENAFATF concerning anti-money laundering, combating terrorist financing and proliferation financing and to protect the economic, social and political systems in the region from the risks of such crimes.
The Plenary will discuss the progress made to increase the effectiveness of the MENAFATF and the importance of continuing positive progress in this regard, as well as preparing for the next round of mutual evaluation processes and the mechanism for preparing countries in a way that guarantees its success, as well as identifying the countries of the MENAFATF that face the risk of not being subject to the mutual evaluation process during the current round. The Plenary will also discuss the training program and technical assistance for 2024 to ensure continuing to raise the expertise and capabilities of countries in the region, and the latest patterns of money laundering and terrorist financing crimes through several typologies studies such as those related to endowments, the Regional Risk Assessment project, and the Typologies Project on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing through Legal Persons.
It is worth noting that the current Plenary was preceded by MENAFATF working group meetings held virtually during the period from 27-30 November 2023, which included the Mutual Evaluation Working Group, Technical Assistance and Typologies Working Group, Financial Intelligence Units Forum, and Operational Experts Forum on Terrorist Financing.