Speech

Welcome Remarks for Financial Action Task Force Ministerial Meeting

April 21, 2022

Dear Deputy Minister Pillath, dear Ministers, dear President Pleyer, and dear colleagues, on behalf of the management of the IMF, it is a great pleasure to host your meeting and to welcome you to the IMF.

Fifteen years ago, I was a member of the Chinese Delegation to the FATF when China became a member. I have been following FATF’s developments and I am proud of the work you have accomplished.

The need to safeguard the integrity of the financial system and to ensure that crime does not undermine growth, is even more acute today.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of ensuring the integrity of government spending. Governments had to mobilize unprecedented financial resources to save the lives and livelihoods of their citizens. This process was also fraught with opportunities for misuse.

The IMF recognized this situation early on and called on countries receiving our emergency financing to commit to safeguards regarding that financing. This included commitments, in the letters requesting emergency financing, to publish beneficial ownership information for companies awarded procurement contracts. We disbursed quickly to meet our members’ needs, while pressing for greater transparency and for processes to “check the receipts” from pandemic-related spending.

Three things are clear:

• the FATF’s role remains critical;
• the changes to the standards (including on beneficial ownership and virtual assets) show that the FATF can address evolving risks;
• the expertise of the FATF has proven invaluable: FATF was the first standard setting body to address the risks related to virtual assets.

We will continue to support the FATF and our members, by pushing for effective implementation of the FATF standards in the context of our surveillance and lending, as well as through our capacity development activities.

I look forward to FATF’s further success and its continued cooperation with the IMF in the years to come.