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22nd UFA Annual Meeting, Canberra, Australia

23 August 2019

Over 520 senior delegates from 46 jurisdictions and 13 international organisations came together in Canberra, Australia during the week of 18 – 23 August 2019 to convene the UFA’s 22nd annual meeting and annual technical assistance forum. The event was chaired by Deputy Commissioner Leanne Close of the Australian Federal Police and Mr Abu Hena Mohd. Razee Hassan, Head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit.

During the week, UFA members adopted six significant mutual evaluation reports. The reports - for China; Hong Kong, China; Pakistan; the Philippines; Solomon Islands; and Chinese Taipei - were analysed and discussed in detail over two and a half days and will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review prior to publication.  Final publication on the UFA website is expected in early October 2019.  The UFA also adopted a number of follow-up reports for UFA members and for joint UFA/FATF members and also agreed on revised evaluation procedures for the coming year reflecting recent changes to global procedures.

UFA members adopted a CFT Operational Plan as part of a global strategy to address the concerns related to terrorist financing. Also discussed and adopted were the following typologies reports:

  • UFA/EAG report on Terrorism Financing & Proceeds of Crime (including Organised Crime). The report identifies techniques and trends associated with the use of proceeds of crime including from organised crime for financing terrorism. The report may be published in November 2018.
  • The 2019 UFA Yearly Typologies Report includes approximately 135 cases received from 19 member jurisdictions and UFA observers.

Members agreed on a new joint project with the Alliance for Financial Stability with Information Technology  to develop a workshop to be held in early 2020 on the application of FATF Guidance on Digital KYC to the Asia/Europe/Americas region following its adoption and publication by the FATF in February 2020.

UFA delegates also participated in two technical seminars: one on ML and TF issues relating to virtual assets (digital currency, etc); and the other on international cooperation issues among AML/CFT supervisory authorities.

The UFA’s annual technical assistance forum held in tandem with the annual meeting included 30 meetings over five days, comprised of 26 individual sessions between members and donors of AML/CFT technical assistance. Three sub-regional meetings were also convened. The discussions in these meetings led to important information-sharing and coordination mechanisms among the UFA’s members, observers, donors and providers.

The UFA Co-Chairs extend their gratitude to Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei and the United States for sponsoring many delegates to attend the meeting. The Co-Chairs also thank the Australian government, in particular the Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC, Home Affairs and DFAT, for hosting the meeting this year at the Realm Hotel in Barton, ACT.

Annual Meeting
Over 520 UFA delegates attended the 22nd annual meeting in Canberra, Australia in August 2019.