VIENNA, Austria – Countries need to take critical measures to target the huge illicit profits generated by drug trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and frauds and scams, international organisations urged today, warning that behind every dollar laundered is a victim – a family destroyed, a life lost, a community damaged.
This was the urgent call to action by leaders from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), INTERPOL and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna today, at a high-level side event on the first day of the 34th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ).
Prioritising an economic and financial crime approach to crime prevention is critical to reduce the harm that crime causes to our societies, and to ensure financial stability and economic growth.
At today’s CCPCJ, FATF, INTERPOL and UNODC collectively called on governments to improve asset recovery efforts to remove organized crime and terrorist groups’ ability to expand value and territory, and to cooperate internationally to make financial investigations more targeted and effective.
Finance ministers have called for greater efforts to fight crime and terrorism by cutting off the profits which enable them. The FATF, the global watchdog on illicit finance covering over 200 jurisdictions, responded to this call by tightening standards for asset recovery.
Assessments of the FATF Global Network found that almost 80 per cent of countries are at low or moderate level of effectiveness on asset recovery.
UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said:
“This is a call to action to define innovative and scalable solutions to combat economic crime. Let us work together through our partnerships and use the opportunity of this CCPCJ and the 15th UN Crime Congress in 2026 to accelerate collective responses against criminal and terrorist financing to ensure our financial systems are drivers of peace, security, and prosperity.”
FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo said:
“The FATF is committed to providing countries with the tools and the international forum to collectively tackle the challenges we all face today. This is critical to financial stability, development, peace, and security. Global defences against illicit finance are only as strong as our weakest link, so we are sounding the alarm so that all countries work together to meet the complex, transnational threats of today. We cannot let crime thrive.”
From the operational perspective, INTERPOL has implemented its recently launched Silver Notice, designed to improve the speed and effectiveness of international cooperation in targeting criminal assets. Currently, 51 countries that are part of the pilot have indicated they will make use of the new Notice to request information on assets worldwide.
INTERPOL Acting Executive Director of Police Services Cyril Gout said:
“Illicit finance is not just one of many criminal threats – it is the enabler of them all. This is why INTERPOL focuses on developing and delivering innovative tools to facilitate international law enforcement cooperation and tackle illicit financial flows. We are proud to serve as a bridge between international commitments and national action.”
The three leaders highlighted their recent collective work in developing practical tools for practitioners to dramatically improve their capabilities in working across jurisdictional lines, with FATF President Elisa de Anda Madrazo noting that, “Criminals do not confine themselves within national borders, so we need to ensure that our borders do not provide opportunities for criminals to hide money and frustrate our pursuit of them.”
Later this year, the three organizations, together with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will release practical guidance for practitioners on key avenues of international collaboration.
The leaders stressed the strengthening of the FATF’s international standards on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing and called for accelerated progress on cooperating across borders and capacity building ahead of the UN 2026 Crime Congress, to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.
They also recognized the positive impact of Member States increasingly working with the private sector and civil society on joint approaches to fighting financial crime and welcomed the acceleration of operational work through public private partnerships and task forces.
High-level participants at the event, “Global Call to Action to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism: International Cooperation”, discussed the critical steps that Member States must take to dramatically improve international cooperation to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, including capacity building, the effective implementation of the risk-based approach, public-private partnerships, and innovating through new technologies.
The 15th UN Crime Congress, Abu Dhabi, 25 – 30 April 2026, will provide its Member States the opportunity to grapple with these difficult issues and to commit to scalable and innovative responses to financial crime.
