One of the organizations that have been set up to undertake functions for the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing is the Financial Action Task Force. Effective February 2012, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has introduced the "New 40 Recommendations" (incorporating FATF's earlier 40 Recommendations and 9 Special Recommendations) that member countries must comply with. In essence, the five key changes have included the following: (i) The inclusion of tax crimes as predicate offences for money laundering; (ii) The extension of obligations on financial institutions (FIs) to conduct enhanced due deligence on a risk basis to politically exposed persons (PEPs); (iii) The introduction of more rigorous requirements in relation to the information which must accompany wire transfers; (iv) The requirement for countries to establish mechanisms to record basic company information and to enable FIs, competent authorities and others to determine beneficial ownership and conduct appropriate Customer Due Deligence (CDD) and (v) The introduction of a new step-by-step process for the identification of beneficial ownership and control of companies as part of CDD measures. - source FATF
