The FATF (Financial Action Task Force) is the committee that meets
periodically to assess whether
countries are doing enough to combat money laundering.  They make a
list of
which countries support money laundering, and which ones are "non
cooperative."  I would like to know the date(s) that the FATF will be
meeting, and when the next report is scheduled to be published of
their
findings.  I belive it may be sometime in June, but I'm not sure. I
will
need to see the sources for this answer to make sure they are reliable
in
terms of academic standards.

If you happen to see anything about Israel coming off the list, I
would be very happy to see that, too.  Thanks.

(FATF: Financial Action Task Force.  OECD: Organization for economic
cooperation and development)

Hello,

Taken from the FATF's upcoming calendar of events (link below), the
FATF's next meeting will be held in Paris, France from June 19th -
June 21st. And the one after that one will be October 9th - October
11th in Paris, France. Their annual reports come out on June 22nd of
each year, and the previous two years can be found on a link below.

As per your special focus requests, here's what I've found.

FATF-V (London, 16 June 1994) (linked below):
"Israel is not considered to be a significant money laundering centre
but has the potential to become a transit point for the flow of dirty
money. Israel has yet to take action against money laundering but the
subject is under active consideration."

That was the beginning of an investigation into the country which
culminated in the 2000 Annual Report (linked below):

FATF-XI (Paris, 22 June 2000)
"Israel *
30. Israel meets criteria 10, 11, 19, 22 and 25. It also partially
meets criterion 6. The absence of anti-money laundering legislation
causes Israel to fall short of FATF standards in the areas of
mandatory suspicious transaction reporting, criminalisation of money
laundering arising from serious crimes and establishment of a
financial intelligence unit. Israel is partially deficient in the area
of record keeping, since this requirement does not apply to all
transactions. However, Israel already meets FATF standards in the
areas of regulation of financial institutions, licensing and screening
procedures for banking corporations, and international co-operation in
regulatory investigations. Israeli banking regulations address the
issue of customer identification.

31. The Government of Israel has been considering the enactment of an
anti-money laundering law for almost a decade. It is expected that a
final draft will be submitted to a Knesset Committee for approval by
the end of June 2000 and then sent to the full Knesset for its final
two readings and a vote. Israeli officials expect enactment by the end
of July 2000. This anti-money laundering legislation is intended to
rectify most of Israel’s shortcomings and to correct most of the
deficiencies in the Israeli legal system that allow freedom of
movement to money launderers. However, unless the legislation is
amended to provide for exchanges with foreign administrative financial
intelligence units, its enactment would cause Israel to partially meet
criterion 15. The Israeli Ministry of Justice has already drafted a
plan to set up an FIU so that the unit can become operational as soon
as the law is passed."

Here are the criteria Israel meets to dissatisfaction:

10. Absence of an efficient mandatory system for reporting suspicious
or unusual
transactions to a competent authority, provided that such a system
aims to detect and
prosecute money laundering.

11. Lack of monitoring and criminal or administrative sanctions in
respect to the
obligation to report suspicious or unusual transactions.

19. Failure to criminalise laundering of the proceeds from serious
crimes.

22. Refusal to provide judicial co-operation in cases involving
offences recognised as
such by the requested jurisdiction especially on the grounds that tax
matters are involved.

25. Lack of a centralised unit (i.e., a financial intelligence unit)
or of an equivalent
mechanism for the collection, analysis and dissemination of suspicious
transactions
information to competent authorities.


Additional Links:

FATF Upcoming Events:
http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/Calforth_en.htm

FATF Annual Reports and other documents:
http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/FATDocs_en.htm

FATF-V (London, 16 June 1994)
http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/AR1994_en.pdf

FATF-XI (Paris, 22 June 2000)
http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/AR2000_en.pdf


It was my pleasure to bring you this information, hope it serves you
well and answers your question fully!
skermit-ga

thanks for your research.  It helped me make a good presentation to my
company, and I had a hard time getting the data together quickly.

Hi Dan89.

I saw your question when you last posted earlier this month but it
expired before I had a chance to respond, so now I'll have to settle
for an added comment here.  Your original question seemed more
concerned with Israel's removal status from the list so that's the
portion I will address.

As of 4/25/02, Israel is still on the list of non-cooperative
countries.
SOURCE:  http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/NCCT_en.htm#List

The most recent update on their website is 2/1/02 as a result of the
Plenary meeting in Hong Kong at that time.
[SEE:  http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/PR-20020201_en.pdf]  
It does document that Israel had enacted additional legislation as
late as December 2001.  Id. at [pg] 3.

In order to be removed from the list, all deficiencies must be
addressed:
(1) Enactment of laws and regulations that comply with the
international standards;
(2) Submission of an implementation plan with targets, etc., that will
ensure effective implementation of the legislative and regulatory
reforms;
(3) FATF's regional review group then prepares a response for
submission to the non-cooperative county "at an appropriate time"
[that is an open-ended and seemingly undefined time frame];
(4) The FATF, on initiative of the applicable review group ...
"should" make an onsite visit to the non-cooperative country "at an
appropriate time" to confirm effective implementation [again, another
undefined time frame];
(5) Then, the review group reports progress at subsequent meetings of
the FATF; and if all are satisfied that sufficient steps have been
taken to ensure continued effective implementation of the reforms, a
recommendation is made to the Plenary for removal of that jurisdiction
from the list.

SOURCE:  http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/NCCT2001_en.pdf dated 6/22/01;
section "FATF's Policy Concerning Implementation and De-Listing..." at
page 29

Since it appears that Israel is still enacting laws (as late as
12/01), it stands to reason that it will be a while before all of the
above steps will be met, especially given the undefined time frames in
Stages (3) and (4).

There are no updates posted onsite containing the results of the
recent meeting in Rome on May 7-8, 2002, and the next plenary meeting
of the FATF is on 6/19-21/02 in Paris.  There are additional meetings
in the interim by the specific review groups, and those are listed on
the schedule.
SOURCE:  http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/Calforth_en.htm AND
http://www1.oecd.org/media/upcoming.htm

The FATF usually holds three {3} plenary meetings a year, and these
meetings are not open to the public.
SOURCE:  http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/Events_en.htm

It appears that formal reports are being published every June, which
is the end of their fiscal year, so you should have your update
shortly.

-Tracker-