A Hong Kong delegation attended the third Plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - XXIX in Paris, France, from June 24 to 29. The attendees discussed the mutual evaluation reports of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the effectiveness of their efforts in tackling money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF), as well as the global ML/TF trends, techniques and typologies.

Led by Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Mr Chris Sun, the Hong Kong delegation included Senior Superintendent of Narcotics Bureau (NB) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) Wong Chi-kwong, as well as representatives from the Customs and Excise Department, the Department of Justice, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission.

Established in 1989, the FATF is an inter-governmental body that sets international anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) standards known as FATF Recommendations, and promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating ML and TF. Through mutual evaluation, the FATF assesses the level of compliance of its members with the FATF Recommendations.

Having been a member of the FATF since 1991, Hong Kong will undergo the fourth round of mutual evaluation in 2018/2019, which is expected to be more stringent, with its level of assessment surpassing that of previous rounds in terms of scope and depth. Seventeen FATF members have so far completed the fourth round of mutual evaluation, and only three members managed to pass the assessment.

Notwithstanding the challenges ahead, all AML/CFT stakeholders of Hong Kong have been exerting their utmost efforts in combating ML and TF, through strengthening the legal and regulatory framework; and reinforcing its risk-based approach in supervision, enforcement, prevention and education. As one of the major AML/CFT stakeholders, NB since 2014 has been assiduously preparing for the fourth round of mutual evaluation with the staunch support of the Police headquarters as well as crime units at regional and district levels. Meticulous quantitative and qualitative analysis has been conducted in a bid to fully demonstrate to FATF the HKPF's high level of professionalism and commitment in combating ML and TF.

The FATF will come to Hong Kong from October 30 to November 15 to carefully gauge the effectiveness of the local AML/CFT regime, including the HKPF's efforts in financial investigation, use of financial intelligence and ML/TF risk assessment, through visiting and interviewing the relevant units. The HKPF will strive to meet the challenges ahead to the best of its ability whilst taking heed of the FATF's advice to address any deficiency.