Wednesday 20 / November / 2024
Paris: The Sultanate of Oman, represented by the National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and the National Committee for Combating Terrorism, is currently participating in the General Meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The event, being held in Paris, runs till 25 October 2024.
The Sultanate of Oman’s delegation is headed by Tahir Salem Al Amri, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman (CBO), Chairman of the National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. This meeting will discuss and approve the report of the Sultanate of Oman on the systems for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
It is worth noting that the mutual evaluation process is based onOman’s membership in the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) and its membership in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) through the membership of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
According to the work system of both groups, Oman, like the rest of the group’s countries, is obligated to subject its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing systems to a mutual evaluation process by experts accredited in the two groups, in accordance with the international recommendations and the mutual evaluation methodology adopted in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Based on the timetable approved by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding the mutual evaluation processes of the Sultanate, Oman has previously completed the stage of submitting the technical compliance file related to all legislation, including laws, instructions, procedures, guidelines and circulars, in accordance with the requirements of each of the forty recommendations of the FATF.
The stage of submitting the compliance effectiveness file related to highlighting the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering systems based on each of the eleven direct results specified in the effectiveness evaluation in the group’s methodology was also completed later.
The Sultanate of Oman has also completed the field visit program of the Financial Action Task Force’s team of assessment experts, which was held during the period from January 29th to February 14th, 2024.
The field visit of the team of assessment experts included a large number of sessions and meetings with the relevant government agencies and some financial and non-financial institutions, associations and charitable institutions obligated to report suspicions of money laundering and terrorist financing crimes under the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law.
Since its last assessment in 2011, the Sultanate of Oman has made great efforts to develop its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing system to be in line with international requirements.
Law No. 30/2016 on Combating Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing was issued, in addition to developing and implementing regulations related to enforcing the supervisory powers of financial and non-financial regulatory bodies.
The National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing has also been developing the national assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, developing strategies for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction for the period (2020-2022) and (2023-2025), developing action plans to implement them, and holding awareness-raising events for the public and private sectors. -ONA
