The Second Plenary of the thirty-fourth session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF-XXXIV) was convened in Paris, France from February 17 to 21, 2025. Present at the meeting were over 200 delegates from the FATF and the FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs) as members and observers. The People's Bank of China, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security dispatched personnel to form the Chinese delegation to the conference.
The Plenary adopted Recommendation 1 (Assessing Risks and Applying a Risk-Based Approach) along with relevant recommendations and revised drafts of interpretive notes, encouraging financial institutions and designated non-financial institutions to adopt appropriate simplified measures in lower-risk scenarios, so as to further emphasize a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering. The Plenary decided to solicit public comments on the Guidance on Financial Inclusion, Recommendation 16 (Payment Transparency), and the revised draft interpretive notes.
The Plenary reviewed the rectification progress of countries on the "grey (black) list," such as the Philippines, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The Plenary recognized the efforts made by the Philippines to improve its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing systems and agreed to remove it from the "grey list." It was decided to include Lao PDR and Nepal into the "grey list."
The Plenary discussed issues related to the study of money laundering and terrorist financing typologies and adopted research reports on money laundering typologies such as Online Child Sexual Exploitation.
The Plenary also discussed arrangements for the fifth round of international anti-money laundering evaluations, clarifying that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would lead the fifth round of international anti-money laundering evaluations for China.
The Plenary appointed Giles Thomson, an official from the UK Treasury, as the Vice President of FATF, with a term starting in July 2025 and ending in June 2027. Other relevant issues were also discussed at the Plenary.
