The FATF MER (Mutual Evaluation Report) Recommendation Assessment spreadsheet is a record of the FATF 11 Effectiveness Recommendations Assessments (Immediate Outcomes) and 40 Technical Recommendation Assessments (as per the 2013 Methodology for assessing technical compliance with the FATF Recommendations and the effectiveness of AML/CFT systems).
Besides being a major factor when assessing Country Risk, the Recommendation Assessments can also be used to determine whether a country may be deemed to be equivalent (where financial institutions are permitted to rely on third-party financial institutions and DNFBPs to perform elements (a)-(c) of the CDD measures set out in Recommendation 10 (identification of the customer);
- identification of the beneficial owner; and
- understanding the nature of the business) or to introduce business.
Although the 2013 Methodology recommends that the assessments of Recommendations 10 and 11 should be taken into consideration when determining equivalence, later evaluations have suggested that these may well be extended to include Immediate Outcome Recommendations 3 and 4, together with other Technical Compliance Recommendations, including 12,13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 26.