On the sidelines of the 39th MENAFATF Plenary held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the period 20-21 November 2024, and on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the group, a conference on the latest developments in the field of combating money laundering, financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons was held on Tuesday, November 19, 2024.

His Excellency the Governor of the Saudi Central Bank "SAMA", Mr. Ayman bin Mohammed Al-Sayari, and His Excellency the President of MENAFATF, Mr. Hani Mohammed Wahab, inaugurated the conference with their opening remarks. The President of the Financial Action Task Force "FATF", Ms. Elisa de Anda Madrazo, delivered the keynote speech of the conference.

During the conference, four main sessions were held, where the first session dealt with the adoption of international standards by the FATF and FSBRs, while the second session discussed the lessons learned from the current round of mutual evaluations and a future outlook for the next round. The third session focused on applying the FATF standards to virtual assets and modern technologies and presenting countries’ experiences. The fourth session discussed best practices in tracing and recovering assets and activating cooperation mechanisms at the international level. Experts from the Financial Action Task Force, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force, the Asia-Pacific Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United States of America, the Republic of Tunisia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the French Republic participated in enriching the discussion of these sessions.