The Third Plenary of the thirty-fourth session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF-XXXIV) was convened in Strasbourg, France from June 10 to 13, 2025. This session was jointly held with the European Commission’s Committee of Experts on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) Assessments. Over 700 delegates from more than 110 countries, regions, and international organizations—including FATF and the FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs)—attended the meeting. 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 constitute the Chinese delegation attending the conference.
The plenary adopted Recommendation 16 (Payment Transparency) and its interpretive notes, which aim to enhance the security of cross-border payments. This adoption forms a key part of the G20 initiative to improve the speed, reduce costs, and increase transparency of cross-border payments. Additionally, The Plenary also approved revisions to the assessment methodology for Recommendation 1 (Assessing Risks and Applying a Risk-Based Approach) and several other recommendations.
Latvia’s mutual evaluation report—the first of FATF’s new global evaluation cycle—was reviewed and adopted and will be published after quality and consistency checks.
The Plenary reviewed the rectification progress of countries on the "grey (black) list," such as Myanmar and Vietnam. The Plenary recognized the efforts made by Croatia, Mali, and Tanzania to improve their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing systems and agreed to remove them from the "grey list." It was decided to add Bolivia and the British Virgin Islands to the "grey list."
The Plenary adopted the Guidance on Financial Inclusion, the Comprehensive Update on Terrorist Financing Risks, and the International Cooperation in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Money Laundering.
Other issues were also discussed.
