FATF Report highlights major gaps in global response to Proliferation Financing and Sanctions Evasion
A new FATF report released on 20 June 2025 reveals significant weaknesses in the global financial system’s ability to counter the financing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Despite the serious threat, only 16% of countries evaluated have shown strong effectiveness in implementing targeted financial sanctions under UN Security Council resolutions. The report highlights that both public and private sectors need to urgently improve their technical compliance and enforcement efforts, as current gaps allow proliferators to exploit the system. The report details how proliferation financing (PF) networks use complex methods to evade sanctions, including the use of intermediaries, concealment of beneficial ownership, virtual assets, and manipulation of maritime shipping. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is identified as the most significant actor, leveraging cyberattacks and diverse illicit revenue streams to fund its WMD programs. To combat these challenges, the report recommends enhanced public-private cooperation, better information sharing, and practical risk indicators to detect evasion, emphasizing the need for a coordinated global response aligned with international obligations to prevent catastrophic consequences.
Illicit actors are employing increasingly sophisticated methods to evade sanctions and circumvent export controls. Based on submissions from across the FATF Global Network, the report identifies four major typologies used in sanctions evasion:
- use of intermediaries to evade sanctions
- obscuring beneficial ownership information (BOI) to access the financial system
- using virtual assets and other technologies
- exploiting the maritime and shipping sectors
The full report is available on the FATF website.
Watch the video if you are interested in a short summary of the FATF report Complex Proliferation Financing and Sanctions Evasion Schemes.
Notice: This video was produced using AI technology. The audio content is entirely original and created by Bastian Schwind-Wagner, while the visual representation through the personalized avatar has been generated using AI to enhance the presentation.