About the FATF
Established in 1989 by the Group of 7 (G7), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental taskforce that functions as an international watchdog for global money laundering and terrorism financing.
The FATF regularly reviews countries with deficiencies in anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), and counter-proliferation financing (CPF) and works with them to improve their systems, to ensure they’re in line with and do not present a risk to the international finance system.
Recent FATF updates and figures
Following the announcement at the 34th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in Vienna in May 2025 that nearly 80% of countries had low or moderate levels of effective asset recovery, the FATF, in November 2025, published a comprehensive, and modular, handbook on Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices, aimed at improving global efforts in recovering illicit assets.
FATF goals
The handbook hopes to achieve three outcomes, as stated in the executive summary:
- Increase the understanding and use of new FATF Standards among jurisdictions
- Help countries implement new FATF Standards
- Improve illicit asset confiscation rates
Handbook structure and themes
The handbook consists of eight chapters that can be divided into three distinct parts:
- Chapter 2 examines asset recovery as a policy priority for countries who are either improving an existing framework or building one from scratch.
- Chapters 3-7 supply best practices and guidance concerning the “legal and practical components of the system as set out in the FATF’s standards”.
- Chapter 8 examines asset recovery and discusses the negative outcomes that can result from the irresponsible use of asset recovery tools.
As explained in the introductory chapter of the handbook, across all eight chapter and its “more than 85 real-world case examples and recovery techniques”, the two recurring themes present throughout the text are ‘asset management’ and ‘international co-operation’.
Intended audience
In the handbook’s executive summary, the FATF states that the document is intended for a variety of readers, spanning policymakers, providers of technical assistance, the public, and more.
To further assist readers, each chapter of the handbook opens with a list of suggested audiences, which range from asset managers and investigative agencies to ministries and central authorities responsible for cooperation in criminal matters.
Overview of chapters and key points
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces readers to the handbook and provides a broad overview of the text and its chapters.
Chapter 2, Asset Recovery as a Policy Priority, highlights the importance of prioritising asset recovery and having a well-designed asset framework in place and the benefit of establishing agency structures focused on asset recovery.
Chapter 3, Financial Investigations, identifies new categories of property that “should be subject to confiscation” and looks at financial investigations and discusses matters such as how to integrate asset recovery into investigations, useful techniques that can be used in asset identification, and the importance of evaluating possible assets for confiscation and pre-seizure planning.
Chapter 4, Provisional Measures to Swiftly Secure Assets, explores the new requirements under the FATF Standards for countries to be able to suspend both ongoing and attempted suspicious transactions, the importance of properly managing seized or frozen properties post-seizure but before confiscation, where and when expeditious actions may be necessary, and the legal tools that are available to swiftly secure assets.
Chapter 5, Comprehensive Range of Confiscation Measures, considers the range of confiscation measures and innovative tools available to jurisdictions and the importance of enforcing confiscation orders.
Chapter 6, International Co-operation, focuses on international co-operation and the transnational nature of crime and recommends that countries engage with and participate in asset recovery inter-agency networks (ARINs) and expand and modernise their laws and processes to “recognise and give effects to orders from foreign courts related to assets in their jurisdiction”.
Chapter 7, Return, Repatriation, and Use of Recovered Assets, looks at the return, repatriation, and use of recovered assets and discusses the appropriate management and liquidation of confiscated assets and what mechanisms should be in place to return assets to either compensate victims or restore them to their rightful owners and the international mechanisms that should be in place to “engage in asset sharing, asset return, and cost-sharing”.
Chapter 8, Safeguarding Rights When Implementing the FATF Standards on Asset Recovery, looks at how to safeguard rights when implementing FATF standards for asset recovery and discusses the importance of checks and balances, transparency, and mechanisms to “prevent abuses of authority or unintended consequences”, the necessity of respecting fundamental rights and the guarantee of due process for affected persons, and maintaining awareness of the possibility of “improper law enforcement incentives and overreach in confiscation”.
Call to action
In light of the low illicit asset recovery rates reported at the May CCPCJ, the FATF reiterated its call to jurisdictions to “make asset recovery a policy and operational priority” and urged them to use the guidance provided in the handbook to better protect the international financial system and improve the end results for communities and victims affected by money laundering and other criminal activities.
As explained by FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo, the Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices handbook “equips countries to act faster, search further, and think bigger when it comes to asset recovery”.
Key takeaways
In November 2025, the FATF published a comprehensive and modular Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices handbook designed to help jurisdictions improve their illicit asset recovery outcomes and better combat local and transnational money laundering.
