Two intergovernmental events during the last week of April 2018 demonstrated growing support to address the problems nonprofits organizations (NPOs) are having with access to financial services for international programs. At both the conference on combatting terrorist financing hosted by the French government and the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) annual meeting with NPOs and private sector stakeholders, outcome statements emphasized the importance of addressing the “derisking” problem and ensuring that efforts to stop terrorist financing do not unduly disrupt or discourage NPO activities.
The international conference on combating the financing of Daesh and Al-Qaeda, hosted by the French government in Paris, took place April 25-26. The official summary, titled “No Money for Terror,” included a commitment to:
An opinion column about the meeting in The Economist noted the need for flexible anti-terrorist financing strategies, saying, “Another challenge is to reverse “derisking”—banks heavy-handedly pulling away from clients that pose even the slightest terrorism-related risk, leaving many legitimate charities cut off from financial services. That collateral damage must be curtailed.”
FATF’s summary of its 2018 Private Sector Consultative Forum said ““Addressing de-risking is a key FATF priority.” It went on to say that:
Representatives from the Global NPO Coalition on FATF made a presentation during the session on derisking that included the following recommendations: