About UFA

The UFA's key meetings are:

1. Annual (Plenary) Meeting

2. Annual Typologies Workshop

Further information about these key meetings is outlined below. 

The UFA also conducts a large amount of business between these two meetings in committees to examine specific issues of importance to the UFA membership and make decisions.

3. Governance Committee: This committee manages a variety of issues of strategic importance to the membership including confidential membership issues, financial issues and the structure and functioning of the UFA as an organisation. It meets at least five times per year.

4. Mutual Evaluations Committee: this committee manages the UFA's mutual evaluation (ME) programme and considers draft ME reports and ME policy issues. This committee meets a minimum of five times per year.   

5. Operations Committee: the Operations Committee was formed in mid-2017 and manages the UFA's typologies research programme and implementation issues programme (including the SIP Framework). It also meets a mimimum of five times per year including one face-to-face meeting at the UFA's annual meeting each year.

For more information on these committees:

• Click on "Governance Committee" to the left;
• Click on "Mutual Evaluations", "Methods and Trends" and "Implementation Issues" at the top of this page. 

The UFA meets at least once each year in a general plenary meeting of all members and observers. The UFA may meet more than once per year in a "special plenary meeting" but in practice, due mainly to cost, the UFA meets once a year.

The purpose of Annual Meetings is to discuss the UFA's strategic directions and work programme including:

• Structure and operation of the UFA;
• Mutual evaluation reports;
• Implementation issues;
• Technical assistance and training programmes;
• Money laundering methods; and
• Special issues of significance to members.

Invitations to Annual Meetings may be extended to non-members to attend as guests of the Co-Chairs, however, sessions are usually limited to member and observer delegations only.

The Terms of Reference also state that to ensure a global approach to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism/proliferation, UFA member delegations will work closely with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF secretariat and a number of FATF member-delegations usually attend UFA annual and typologies meetings.

Twenty-two annual meetings have been held since the UFA's formation:

• Tokyo, Japan, March 1998;
• Manila, The Philippines, August 1999;
• Sydney, Australia, June 2000;
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 2001;
• Brisbane, Australia, June 2002;
• Macau, China, September 2003;
• Seoul, Korea, June 2004;
• Cairns, Australia, July 2005;
• Manila, The Philippines, July 2006;
• Perth, Australia, July 2007;
• Bali, Indonesia, July 2008;
• Brisbane, Australia, July 2009;
• Singapore, July 2010;
• Kochi, India, July 2011;
• Brisbane, Australia, July 2012;
• Shanghai, China, July 2013;
• Macau, China in July 2014;
• Auckland, New Zealand in July 2015;
• San Diego, United States in September 2016;
• Colombo, Sri Lanka in July 2017;
• Kathmandu, Nepal in July 2018;
• Canberra, Australia in August 2019.

Summaries of those meetings can be found in the UFA Annual Reports section of this website.

In order to effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing, governments, law makers, officials and the private sector need to understand and keep pace with the various and evolving methods used to launder money and to finance terrorism.

Yearly typologies workshops are held by the UFA to bring together experts and UFA delegates to discuss money laundering and terrorist financing trends as well as policy issues emerging from those trends. These workshops generally have topical 'themes' to provide a focus for the discussion and have five main purposes - to:

• Bring together expert law enforcement and regulators experts in order to share knowledge and experience;
• Identify the current ways by which proceeds of crime are laundered and terrorism is funded in the Asia/Pacific region;
• Determine any emerging money laundering and terrrorist financing trends or patterns within and between jurisdictions in the Asia/Pacific region;
• Consider and make recommendations about money laundering and terrorist financing counter-measures; and
• Consider ways to improve international co-operation in the detection, investigation and seizure terrorist finances and proceeds of crime, and where appropriate, the repatriation of the proceeds of crime, especially when the proceeds are transmitted to other jurisdictions.

Twenty-one typologies workshops have been held since the UFA's formation in 1997 in the following locations:

• Wellington, New Zealand, October 1998;
• Tokyo, Japan, March 1999;
• Bangkok, Thailand, March 2000;
• Singapore, October 2001;
• Vancouver, Canada, October 2002;
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 2003;
• Brunei Darussalam, October 2004;
• Nadi, Fiji, October 2005;
• Jakarta, Indonesia, November 2006;
• Bangkok, Thailand, November 2007 (jointly with the FATF);
• Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 2008;
• Siem Reap, Cambodia, October 2009;
• Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 2010;
• Busan, Korea, December 2011 (jointly with the FATF);
• Hanoi, Vietnam, November 2012;
• Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, September 2013 (jointly with the EAG);
• Bangkok, Thailand, November 2014 (jointly with the FATF);
• Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2015;
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, November 2016 (jointly with MENAFATF);
• Busan, Korea 2017 (jointly with FATF TREIN); and
• Novosibirsk, Russian Federation 2018 (jointly with EAG).
• No workshop was held in 2019.

Summary reports of these workshops may be downloaded under "Methods and Trends" (at the top of the screen). Also click on "Annual Reports" to the left of this screen for additional information on typologies workshops.