3 Measures against money laundering

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in 1989 in response to a declaration made at a summit. In 1990 FATF adopted 40 Recommendations concerning measures against money laundering, including criminalizing money laundering related to drug offenses, obliging financial institutions to identify customers and report suspicious transactions to the competent authorities, securing and confiscating illegal proceeds, and strengthening international cooperation, etc. The Recommendations were then revised in 1996 and again in 2003 in expanding the scope of the presupposed offenses of money laundering, strengthening the obligation of financial institutions to identify customers and report suspicious transactions, preventing misuse of corporate bodies, and making measures against money laundering applicable to designated non-financial businesses and professions, etc. In addition, the FATF adopted Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing in 2001 (revised in 2004), and has also been tackling terrorist financing. In Japan, as a FATF member nation, the National Public Safety Commission has strengthened international cooperation in tackling money laundering and terrorist financing by providing information on suspicious transactions to the relevant foreign agencies in accordance with the Act on the Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds.