Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

The intergovernmental body, established by the G7 in 1989 and based at the OECD in Paris, that sets global standards on anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing. Its 40 Recommendations are the benchmark for national regimes; mutual evaluations and the grey and black lists pressure non-compliant jurisdictions. FATF has documented trade-based money laundering and proliferation-financing typologies that bear directly on shipping, including over- and under-invoicing and phantom shipments. It does not issue binding law; states implement the Recommendations domestically.