The Financial Reporting Center (FRC) participated in the plenary meeting of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, chaired by His Excellency Dr. Jawhar Al-Nafisi, MENAFATF President and Chairman of the Moroccan Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), His Excellency Dr. Mohamed El Amine El Dahabi, MENAFATF Vice President, Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania, member countries, in addition to experts from observer countries and international bodies concerned with AML/CFT/CPF, led by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Egmont Group.

Within the framework of this gathering of experts, the meeting comes as a real opportunity to strengthen and unify regional and international efforts led by the MENAFATF concerning anti-money laundering, combating terrorist financing and proliferation financing and protecting the economic, social and political systems in the region from the risks of such crimes.

A number of enhanced follow-up reports (EFURs) for member countries and each country’s efforts and actions to address the shortcomings in their Mutual Evaluation Reports are also discussed and adopted accordingly.

The plenary meeting also discussed areas of technical assistance related to the MENAFATF’s fields of work, the training programs and plans, webinars for 2022, and other important future projects.

It is worth noting that the current plenary meeting was precedented by a number of MENAFATF’s working groups’ meetings virtually during the period from 15 to 19 May 2022, which included the meeting of the MEWG, the meeting of the TATWG, the FIUs Forum, and the Risk Committee.