FATF Gudiance on Anti-Money Laundering/ Countering the Financing of Terrorism -related data and statistics

13 January 2021

High-quality AML/CFT statistics are a key input for national risk assessments, allowing national authorities to measure threats more accurately and allocate resources accordingly. Consistent and comprehensive statistics also provide the FATF and other bodies with a more robust quantitative basis for work on global surveillance of the financial system.


The success of the state to eradicate money laundering and terrorist financing depends on capacities of the institutions that are part of the system for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing affects. In order to improve knowledge and skills and raise capacity of these institutions, the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering has provided a translation into Serbian of a number of publications that will be available to institutions that are part of the system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. One such publication is – FATF Guidance on AML/CFT-related data and statistics.
Studies conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and evaluations carried out by the FATF and other assessment bodies revealed that statistics produced by countries are often not sufficiently comprehensive or reliable to inform the assessment of a country’s AML/CFT system. Even when statistics are available, it is often the case that countries do not collect statistics efficiently, or do not analyze them consistently. Above all, statistics between countries are not always consistent and therefore do not provide a good enough basis for regional or global monitoring of AML / CFT results.
In order to better collect statistics and make them consistent and uniform among countries, the FATF has prepared Gudinace on AML/CFT-related data and statistics.  The Guidance is non-binding and rely on the fact that most countries have well-established protocols for the collection and presentation of statistics that are tailored to their specific context. Accordingly, their purpose is to provide a list of options for using statistics as a supplement to qualitative data in the assessment of the AML / CFT system, recognizing that this information may also be used for other purposes. The main objectives of The Guidance are to a) define options for the collection, management and presentation of AML / CFT statistics; b) provide advice on how to analyze AML / CFT statistics; and c) Provide specific examples of statistics that may be useful for assessing the effectiveness of the AML / CFT system.
The Guidance should be seen as a convenient resource for range of stakeholders involved in the AML / CFT efforts, including countries wishing to assess or demonstrate the effectiveness of their AML / CFT systems. The Guidance should not be seen as an instrument that obliges the collection of a range of possible statistics, or as a tool that limits and prevents the collection of alternative statistics, primarily because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. in the light of the context in the state.
There are three main chapters of this publication: 1) Chapter II lists potential considerations for the collection and maintenance of SPN / FT statistics, both material and procedural; 2) Chapter III defines general principles that can provide information for the analysis of statistics related to AML / CFT; and 3) Chapter IV provides examples of useful statistics that countries may consider collecting to assess the effectiveness of their AML / CFT systems.
The translation of the publication was provided through the project "EU Support to Serbia in Prevention of Money Laundering in Serbia", funded by the European Union. The beneficiary of the project is the Ministry of Finance - The Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering, and the project is implemented by a consortium led by KPMG.