Xiangmin Liu of the People’s Republic of China assumed the position of President of the FATF on 1 July 2019. He succeeded Marshall Billingslea of the United States.
Mr. Liu currently serves as Director-General of the Legal Department at the People’s Bank of China
With people around the world facing confinement or strict social distancing measures, in-person banking and access to other financial services is difficult, and unnecessarily exposes people to the risk of infection. Use of digital/contactless payments and digital onboarding reduce the risk of spreading the virus. As such, the use of financial technology (Fintech) provides significant opportunities to manage some of the issues presented by COVID-19. In line with the FATF Standards, the FATF encourages the use of technology, including Fintech, Regtech and Suptech to the fullest extent possible. The FATF recently released Guidance on Digital ID, which highlights the benefits of trustworthy digital identity for improving the security, privacy and convenience of identifying people remotely for both onboarding and conducting transactions while also mitigating ML/TF risks. The FATF calls on countries to explore using digital identity, as appropriate, to aid financial transactions while managing ML/TF risks during this crisis.
When financial institutions or other businesses identify lower ML/TF risks, the FATF Standards allow them to take simplified due diligence measures, which may help them adapt to the current situation. The FATF encourages countries and financial service providers to explore the appropriate use of simplified measures to facilitate the delivery of government benefits in response to the pandemic.
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Due Diligence of Digital ID Systems: Regulated entities should undertake sufficient levels of due diligence when determining whether to use Digital ID to conduct CDD. Considerations include: (i) whether the Digital ID has been authorised for CDD, and (ii) whether the assurance levels of the Digital ID are known to the organisation.
The Draft Guidance also suggests that for the purposes of simplifying AML/CFT due diligence requirements, organisations should utilise Digital ID systems with lower assurance levels, where risks are low. The consultation on the Guidance, which was open to private sector stakeholders, closed for responses on 29 November 2019. The FATF will now look towards finalising the guidance, with any further amendments being incorporated during meetings occurring in February 2020.From FATF consultation draft guidance on digital identity – Lexology:
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