The Wolfsberg Group is pleased to publish its statement setting out how Financial Institutions (FIs) can assess risk in defined priority areas and demonstrate their Anti-Money Laundering/Combatting Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) programme effectiveness. The document builds on the Group’s prior effectiveness statements to underline that the starting point for an effective AML/CTF programme should be an understanding of the priority risks identified by countries or supra-national bodies in their own assessments of AML/CTF risks and the applicability of those risks to the FI.

The Group believes that an FI’s effectiveness related to designated priorities or the AML/CTF programme overall should be measured based on its compliance with law and regulations, how it is designed to provide highly useful information to government authorities in defined priority areas, and how the FI builds and maintains a reasonable and risk-based set of controls to mitigate the risks of the FI being used to facilitate illicit activity.

The Group remains committed to further dialogue with policy makers, supervisors, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders on effectiveness in AML/CTF in order to achieve our shared goal of fostering the increased effectiveness of the global financial crime risk management framework.