The first Plenary meeting of Plenary year FATF-XXVIII was held in Paris on 19-21 October, under the Spanish Presidency of Mr. Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano.

The Plenary dealt with a number of issues, including:

* Work on Terrorist Financing
* FATF Work to Improve Transparency and Access to Beneficial Ownership Information
* Correspondent Banking Relationships *(Guidance issued. See below)*
* FinTech
* FATF FIU Heads Forum
* Mutual Evaluation Reports of Switzerland and the United States

The Plenary also considered 2 public documents identifying jurisdictions that may pose a risk to the international financial system; a Statement on Brazil’s progress in addressing the serious deficiencies identified in its mutual evaluation reports; an Update and Recognition of AML/CFT Improvements in Guyana; and an Update on the progress made on the development of the FATF Training and Research Institute.

**Correspondent Banking**

On the matter of the decline in correspondent banking relationships, the FATF developed guidance with input from the private sector, and in collaboration with other interested international bodies, including the Financial Stability Board (FSB), which is coordinating a four-point action plan to assess the extent of de-risking problem and identify possible policy responses. This guidance addresses one of the points of this action plan: the clarification of regulatory expectations.

[FATF Guidance on Correspondent Banking](http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Guidance-Correspondent-Banking-Services.pdf?j=1889181&e=dcomito@bfsb-bahamas.com&l=346_HTML&u=30113739&mid=1062735&jb=0)

[Other October FATF Plenary Outcomes](http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/fatfgeneral/documents/outcomes-plenary-october-2016.html?j=1889181&e=dcomito@bfsb-bahamas.com&l=346_HTML&u=30113738&mid=1062735&jb=0#Decline-CB)

**About the FATF**

The [Financial Action Task Force](http://www.fatf-gafi.org/) (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.