The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global organization that leads the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, has a new chief.
The FATF announced on Monday that David Lewis has succeeded Rick McDonell‎ as its executive secretary. Before joining the FATF, Lewis spent several years as a senior policy advisor for the U.K. government on money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Mr Lewis takes over at an important time for the FATF as it continues to face the rapidly changing threats from money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including efforts to tackle groups such as ISIL and Boko Harem, and the use of new technologies by both criminals and terrorists,” the organization says in a statement.
The FATF sets standards and promotes the implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and other threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
As executive secretary, Lewis will oversee the continued evaluation of the 34 countries that belong to the FATF, and will work closely with various other global institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He will also develop closer ties with other international bodies, including the G20, the United Nations, and the Egmont Group, as well as civil society and the private sector, the FATF says.