Mutual Evaluation
Definition
A peer review of a country's AML and CTF system by a team of experts from other FATF members, assessing both technical legal compliance and the effectiveness of implementation across eleven immediate outcomes.
- Conducted by
- Peer team from other FATF member countries
- Scope
- Technical legal compliance and effectiveness
- Assessed against
- 11 immediate outcomes
- Subject
- A country's AML and CTF system
Common questions
What is the difference between the technical compliance and effectiveness parts of a mutual evaluation?+
Technical compliance checks whether the laws and regulations exist on paper, while effectiveness checks whether the system actually achieves outcomes such as prosecutions, asset recovery and reduced money laundering in practice, and a country can score well on one and poorly on the other.
What happens to a country that scores poorly on its mutual evaluation?+
It can be placed under increased monitoring or, in serious cases, listed by FATF as having strategic deficiencies, which raises the country risk rating that banks and forensic auditors apply to counterparties and transactions connected to it.
Related terms
- 40 Recommendations
- FATF's core normative standards, covering customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, beneficial ownership, targeted financial sanctions, and international cooperation. Last substantially revised...
- Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs)
- Non-bank sectors required under FATF standards to apply AML controls, including real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, and...
- Egmont Group
- An international network of 166 financial intelligence units (FIUs) that share financial intelligence through a secure system. FIUs are the operational channel...
- FATF
- The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body founded in 1989 by the G7 that sets global standards for anti-money laundering and...
- Grey List
- The FATF Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring list, identifying countries with strategic deficiencies that have committed to a remediation action plan. Inclusion increases...