The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is the international standard-setting body for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT), published a report today on the Financing of the Terrorist Organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The report provides a thorough and current analysis of ISIL’s revenue streams and financial activities, including looting banks, exploiting oil fields and other economic resources, extorting the movement of goods and cash entering or transiting ISIL-held territory, and kidnapping for ransom. The report also explores challenging emerging issues, such as the financing streams associated with foreign terrorist fighters traveling to support ISIL, and terrorist fundraising via social media. The analysis provided in this report is crucial as the United States, along with its international partners, continues to work to disrupt and degrade ISIL’s financing. This report will serve as a foundational guide for the activities of the ISIL Counter Finance Group (ICFG), which was formed to support the efforts of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL and will be co-led by Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
The FATF’s work on ISIL is part of an intensified focus on terrorist financing within FATF. Earlier this month, the G-20 called on the FATF and the FATF-style regional bodies to enhance compliance with international terrorist financing standards, in particular those concerning the exchange of information and the freezing of terrorist assets. As part of this effort, the FATF will conduct a review of countries’ ability to prosecute terrorist financing and to robustly implement targeted financial sanctions on terrorists and their supporters. This effort will form the basis of a report by FATF to the G-20 in October.
Along with this review, the FATF will develop new initiatives aimed at raising the global level of compliance in key areas, such as protecting non-profit organizations from the risk of terrorist abuse, stopping cross-border cash smuggling, and improving the quality and timeliness of the international exchange of information on terrorist financing. The FATF also announced it will begin work immediately on updating its analysis on financing methods used by terrorist groups beyond ISIL, including a focus on new trends in this area.
Jennifer Fowler is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She leads the U.S. delegation to the Financial Action Task Force.