The 39th MENAFATF Plenary and Working Group meetings commenced this morning under the Presidency of the Republic of Yemen and the generous hosting of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Saudi Central Bank, during the period from November 16 to 21, 2024 in Riyadh. The meeting, which will last for six days, is attended by senior officials from the MENAFTF members and observers from countries and regional and international organizations in the field of combating money laundering, financing terrorism and the proliferation of weapons, which is as an opportunity to enhance and unify regional and international efforts and to protect economic systems in the region from the risks of these crimes and their effects on other areas.

On the sidelines of the MENAFATF Plenary, a conference will be held on the latest developments in the field of combating money laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of MENAFATF. The conference will include several sessions related to the adoption of international standards by the FATF and FATF style regional bodies, lessons learned from the current round of mutual evaluations and a future outlook for the next round, applying FATF standards to virtual assets and modern technologies and presenting countries’ experiences, as well as best practices in tracking and recovering assets and activating cooperation mechanisms at the international level.