With the support of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Narcotics Bureau (NB), an Assessor Training Workshop of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) was held at the Police Headquarters from January 8 to 12.

Twenty-two representatives in charge of law enforcement, prosecution, financial intelligence and regulatory matters from 14 jurisdictions attended the workshop together with 18 participants of the Hong Kong Police Force, the related bureaux and other departments and financial regulators. Through a series of module presentations and exercises, the participants acquired a better understanding of the FATF Assessment Methodology and Recommendations, and attained the qualification as assessors for the FATF and APG Mutual Evaluation.

Officiating at the opening ceremony, Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Mr Sun Yuk-han outlined the recent developments in Hong Kong in undertaking anti-money laundering (AML) work and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) so as to be in alignment with the latest FATF standards. A representative of the FATF Secretariat Mr John Carlson and a representative of the APG Mr Eliot Kennedy briefed the participants on the actions taken by their authorities in view of the dynamic global money laundering and terrorist financing landscape. They acknowledged FSTB's assistance and expressed appreciation to Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Ho Yuen-ha for NB's sound logistics support.

As Hong Kong will undergo the fourth round of FATF Mutual Evaluation, an assessment team will visit the territory in October and November to review the overall level of technical compliance and effectiveness of the local AML/CFT regime, including the Force's efforts on financial investigation, intelligence gathering, and money laundering/terrorist financing risk assessment. Since 2014, various formations at the Police Headquarters, Regional and District Crime levels have been rendering support to NB for facilitating the Mutual Evaluation.