The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG)

The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism is an FATF-style regional body. The EAG was established in 2004 and is currently an associate member of the FATF.

The EAG was created for the countries of the Eurasian region not included in the existing FATF-style regional groups and is intended to play an important role in reducing the threat of international terrorism and ensure the transparency, reliability and security of the financial systems of states and their further integration into the international infrastructure for combating money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CFT). The creation of the group coincided with the launch of efforts to create conditions for the formation and development of effective anti-money-laundering systems in the region.

The initiative to establish the EAG was first announced by the Russian Federation at the Plenary Meeting of the FATF in October 2003. In February 2004 the issue was addressed at an international meeting of the Cooperation of CIS Member-States in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing with the participation of the CIS countries and China, as well as several international organizations.

The initiative received support from the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CIS which recommended that the countries concerned to hold a founding conference to create an FATF-style group regional.

The founding conference was held in Moscow on October 6, 2004, and was attended by six founding countries: Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In 2005 and 2010 the group was expanded to include Uzbekistan (2005), Turkmenistan (2010) and India (2010) which previously had observer status.

The Agreement on the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism was signed in Moscow in June 2011, granting the EAG the status of a regional intergovernmental organization.

Today the EAG brings together nine countries in the region (Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). Observer status has been granted to 15 countries and 20 international organizations.

The primary goal of the EAG is to ensure effective interaction and cooperation at the regional level and integration of EAG member-states into the international system of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism in accordance with the Recommendations of the FATF and the anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism standards of other international organizations, to which EAG member-states are party.

The main tasks of the EAG:

• assisting member-states in implementing the 40 FATF anti-money laundering Recommendations and the 9 Special FATF Recommendations on combating terrorist financing (FATF 40 9 Recommendations);
• developing and conducting joint activities aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing;
• implementing a program of mutual evaluations of member-states based on the FATF 40 9 Recommendations, including assessment of the effectiveness of legislative and other measures adopted in the sphere of AML/CFT efforts;
• coordinating international cooperation and technical assistance programs with specialized international organizations, bodies, and interested states;
• analyzing money laundering and terrorist financing trends (typologies) and exchanging best practices of combating such crimes taking into account regional specifics.