FATF Plenary June 2026: what changed and what compliance teams should watch next
The FATF wrapped up its June 2026 Plenary in Paris on 19 June, closing out the last meeting of Elisa de Anda Madrazo's Mexican Presidency. Delegates from the FATF's Global Network, which now spans more than 200 jurisdictions and observers, met from 17 to 19 June to review current threats to the financial system and sign off on a batch of new work.
For most compliance teams, the headline is the grey list. Two countries went on, two came off. But there was more going on under the surface this time, including a change to the FATF Standards on humanitarian exemptions, a public consultation that will shape how payment data gets shared across borders, and a leadership handover to the UK that puts fraud at the centre of the agenda for the next two years.
Here is what happened and why it matters for your programme.
The short version
- Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq were added to the grey list; Algeria and Namibia came off, leaving 22 countries under increased monitoring.
- The blacklist did not change and still lists North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar.
- Recommendation 6 was updated to protect humanitarian aid from the side effects of sanctions.
- A public consultation opened on guidance for the strengthened Recommendation 16 on cross-border payment transparency.
- Canada and Türkiye had their mutual evaluation reports adopted.
- The UK takes over the Presidency on 1 July with fraud as its lead theme, and Vivek Aggarwal of India was named Vice-President.
Grey list: two in, two out
The list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, better known as the grey list, is usually the first thing risk teams check after a plenary. This round, the FATF added Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq, and removed Algeria and Namibia. That leaves 22 jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
Added: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the list after its MONEYVAL mutual evaluation flagged strategic gaps in its AML/CFT regime. Its action plan leans heavily on the basics that a lot of grey listed countries struggle with: understanding its own money laundering and terrorist financing risks, supervising non-financial businesses and professions, applying sanctions that actually bite, and putting accurate beneficial ownership data within reach of the authorities. The piece that keeps coming up is a working beneficial ownership register, without which it is hard to see who really controls companies in the higher-risk sectors.
Added: Iraq
Iraq is back under monitoring after a first spell between 2013 and 2018. It is one of the bigger economies to land on the list in recent years, with a population near 48 million. The FATF pointed to the risks that come with a heavily cash-based economy and asked Iraq to build more money laundering cases, secure more prosecutions, and make better use of financial intelligence. Iraq has committed to work through its regional body, MENAFATF, on an agreed timeline.
Removed: Algeria
Algeria was grey listed in October 2024 over weaknesses in risk-based supervision, beneficial ownership transparency, and how it handled money laundering and terrorist financing cases. After an on-site visit confirmed the work was real, the FATF took it off the list in June 2026. Algeria tightened supervision, cleaned up company ownership data, and improved how it applies targeted financial sanctions, with closer attention to banking, customs, and cross-border flows. It will keep working with MENAFATF to hold on to those gains.
Removed: Namibia
Namibia went on the list in February 2024 with 13 items to fix across its AML/CFT and counter-proliferation framework, on a plan that ran to May 2026. It cleared almost everything ahead of that deadline, which opened the door to an on-site review and its removal in June. The FATF singled out better supervision across financial and non-financial sectors and a rise in investigations and prosecutions of complex laundering cases. Namibia continues its work with ESAAMLG.
One thing that did not move: the call for action list, or blacklist. It still holds the same three names it has for a while now, North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar.
A change to the Standards on humanitarian aid
The Plenary updated Recommendation 6 so that sanctions measures do not choke off the money, goods, and services needed for humanitarian assistance and basic human needs. The update folds in the humanitarian carve-out from UN Security Council resolutions 2664 and 2761, both tied to counter-terrorism and terrorist financing measures.
In practice this is a reminder that sanctions screening should be tuned so it does not block legitimate aid. If your controls are so blunt that relief payments get caught in the same net as sanctioned parties, that is now clearly out of step with the Standard. It is worth checking that your sanctions screening is precise enough to tell genuine matches apart from legitimate aid flows, so tightening controls does not just add more false positives for your team to clear.
New reports and consultations worth tracking
The FATF signed off on a run of publications and initiatives. A few of them touch payments and banking directly.
Cross-border payment transparency
The big one for payment firms is a public consultation on guidance for the strengthened Recommendation 16 on cross-border payment transparency. The guidance is meant to help countries and financial institutions improve transparency against money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, and predicate crimes, with fraud singled out. Stakeholders can respond from the week of 22 June, so if payment data and screening rules affect you, this is a chance to shape the outcome rather than react to it later. It is also a prompt to review how your transaction monitoring and payment screening handle cross-border payments today, since tighter transparency rules will land on those workflows first.
Public-private information sharing
Due out in July, a new Global Overview of Public and Private Sector Partnerships and Data Protection Arrangements will map different models of information sharing from around the world. The goal is to help firms and authorities share intelligence that is actually useful, while staying inside data protection rules. This thread carries over into the UK Presidency.
Terrorist financing on digital platforms
Another approved publication looks at how terrorist financing runs through social media, messaging apps, and streaming platforms. It builds on the FATF's 2025 update on terrorist financing risks and sets out how these tools get misused, along with steps to counter it, including more direct engagement with the platforms themselves. Because a lot of this risk shows up as negative coverage before it reaches any list, adverse media screening is one way to catch it early. You can also run a quick check on a single name with the free Adverse Media Check.
Underground banking, casinos, and other moving targets
A report due in September will dig into how underground banking, hawala, and similar providers get used by criminals and professional money launderers. Separately, the FATF is updating its view of illicit finance risk in the casino and wider gambling sector, with new risk indicators, as these businesses spread across online and cross-border platforms.
Virtual assets and DeFi
On crypto, the FATF approved its seventh targeted update on how countries are implementing the Standards for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers. A separate report will look at the regulatory headaches around decentralised finance and its exposure to money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. Both are expected in July.
Mutual evaluations of Canada and Türkiye
The Plenary adopted the mutual evaluation reports for Canada, assessed jointly with the Asia/Pacific Group, and Türkiye. Both reports measure how well the countries' defences work in practice and how closely they follow the FATF Recommendations. Publication is set for September to October 2026, after a Global Network quality review. Under the current round, assessed countries get a time-bound roadmap of actions to strengthen their systems within three years.
A new Presidency and a focus on fraud
June 2026 was the last plenary under Mexico's Presidency. Elisa de Anda Madrazo's term ends on 30 June.
From 1 July, the UK takes over for a two-year term running to 30 June 2028, with Giles Thomson as President. He set out three priorities, in line with what was agreed at the FATF Ministerial in Washington earlier this year: a harder push against fraud, including the money laundering and terrorist financing tied to scam compounds; stronger use of the risk-based approach and risk-based supervision; and better information sharing and public-private partnerships.
The Plenary also named Vivek Aggarwal of India as incoming Vice-President for July 2026 to June 2027. Aggarwal is Secretary to the Government of India at the Ministry of Culture and previously led India's delegation to the FATF.
Broadening the Global Network
A new Global Strategy Group held its first meeting on 15 June. Chaired by the FATF President and made up of the chairs of the regional bodies, it is meant to tighten coordination across the network and advise on cross-regional risks.
The FATF also brought in the Alliance for Financial Inclusion as an observer. AFI is a network of central banks and regulators across 83 developing economies, and its role here is to help implement the Standards in a way that supports financial inclusion rather than cutting people out of the system. Jamaica and Nigeria continue to take part under their own flags through the FSRB Guest Initiative. Russia's suspension, in place since February 2024, stays where it is.
What this means for your compliance programme
The immediate task is housekeeping on country risk. Add enhanced due diligence for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq, and revisit the risk scores and controls you apply to Algeria and Namibia now that they are off the list. A removal is not a reset to zero, so document why you are adjusting each one. This is also a good moment to review your current screening setup: refresh your country risk scores, recheck exposed customers with sanctions screening, and let ongoing monitoring flag any status change automatically instead of waiting for the next manual review.
If you run payments, keep an eye on the Recommendation 16 consultation. It will feed into the transparency and data rules your screening has to meet, and the comment window is open now.
And with fraud set to define the next two years of FATF work, it is worth asking how well your current setup catches fraud and the laundering that follows it, without burying your analysts in false positives. That balance between catching more and reviewing less is exactly where older, rules-only systems tend to fall down.
If you want to act on any of this, there are two easy starting points. For a quick initial check, run a name through our free Adverse Media Check or PEP Check. For a full setup that brings sanctions and PEP screening, adverse media, transaction monitoring, ongoing monitoring, and case management into one workflow, you can book a demo.
The next plenary, the first under the UK Presidency, is scheduled for October 2026.
