Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
An intergovernmental organization that sets global standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, including specific guidance on crypto asset service providers.
The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental organization that develops and promotes international policy standards for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and related threats to the global financial system. FATF itself doesn't directly enforce laws, but its recommendations are widely adopted and implemented into binding national law by member and cooperating countries, giving its standards substantial practical influence over how individual jurisdictions regulate financial activity, including crypto.
FATF's guidance on "virtual asset service providers" has been particularly influential in shaping global crypto regulation, including popularizing the Travel Rule (see Kaavon's "Travel Rule" glossary definition) requirement that crypto exchanges and other service providers share originator and beneficiary information for transactions above a certain threshold. Because FATF operates through member countries implementing its recommendations into their own domestic laws rather than through direct supranational enforcement, the specific rules crypto businesses actually face can vary meaningfully by jurisdiction even when all are nominally following the same underlying FATF guidance.
Examples
- FATF's guidance on virtual asset service providers has directly shaped Travel Rule implementation requirements for crypto exchanges across many different countries.
- Because FATF recommendations are implemented through each country's own domestic laws rather than enforced directly, the specific compliance rules crypto businesses face can still vary meaningfully by jurisdiction.