Financial Task Force Will Exclude Countries Involved in Financing Daesh

Countries found to be involved in financing the Islamic State (IS, or Daesh in Arabic) extremist organization, outlawed in many states including Russia, will be excluded from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) organization, Russian media reported Tuesday, citing a source in FATF.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in December, the head of Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service Yuri Chikhanchin said that Russia would propose a series of steps aimed at intensifying efforts to curb suspected terrorist financing during a FATF meeting on December 13.

"At a closed session of FATF, it was decided to strengthen measures to counter the financing of terrorism. The countries where the authorities are found to be complicit in financing Daesh terrorists may lose their membership of FATF," the Russian Izvestia newspaper quoted the source as saying.

According to the newspaper, FATF also intends to monitor these countries.

Russia’s proposals include the creation of a global list of terrorists suspected of having links to Daesh, singling out financial centers used by Daesh terrorists, and tracing their transactions, according to Chikhanchin.

FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to promote effective measures for combating money laundering, financing terrorism and other threats linked to the integrity of the international financial system.

FATF currently comprises 34 member jurisdictions and two regional organizations, representing most major financial centers in all parts of the world, according to the agency's website.