Following is the text of the news release:

FATF Plenary to Meet 30 January-1 February 2002, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

22/01/2002 -- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will hold its first Plenary in Hong Kong since adopting the Plan of Action to combat terrorist financing. The Plenary will analyse the self-assessment of all FATF members against the 8 Special Recommendations designed to deny terrorists and their supporters access to the international financial system and will discuss guidance for financial institutions on the mechanisms and techniques used to finance terrorism.

The Plenary will also discuss and update the list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories which have critical deficiencies in their anti-money laundering systems or are unwilling to co-operate in anti-money laundering efforts.

The annual Typologies report, the survey of money laundering trends and techniques, will be available at the end of the meeting. Journalists are welcome to attend the opening of the meeting and the news conference.

The FATF President, Mrs. Clarie Lo, and the Chief Secretary for Administration, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr. Donald Tsang, will give an opening address to the Plenary at 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday 30 January.

Mrs. Lo, Mr. Bill Bishop, Chairman of the Typologies meeting, New Zealand Police National Crime Manager, and FATF Executive Secretary Patrick Moulette will hold a closing news conference at 5.30 p.m. (Hong Kong time, which is 10.30 a.m. Paris time) on Friday 1 February in Room 702, Murray Building, Garden Road, Central. A live webcast of the news conference will be carried on http://www.info.gov.hk/eindex.htm

For further information, journalists should contact Helen Fisher, OECD Media Relations, (tel. [33] 1 45 24 80 97) or Monica Chan, Chief Information Officer, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (tel. [852] 2867 2759).

The FATF is an independent international body whose Secretariat is housed at the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris]. The twenty-nine member countries and governments of the FATF are: Argentina; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hong Kong, China; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Luxembourg; Mexico; the Kingdom of the Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Portugal; Singapore; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom and the United States. Two international organisations are also members of the FATF: the European Commission and the Gulf Co-operation Council.