The Central Bank of Nepal has opened a two-day international conference in Kathmandu on contemporary anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) issues, with Governor Prof. Dr. Bishwanath Paudel urging a shared commitment across public authorities and the financial sector to strengthen Nepal’s AML/CFT framework while the country remains on the Financial Action Task Force “grey list”. He highlighted the need to make internal prevention mechanisms more robust and aligned with transparent, globally accepted standards, stressing that tackling financial crime requires coordinated action beyond any single body or sector. Organised through Nepal Rastra Bank’s Money Laundering Prevention Supervision Department, the programme brings together experts from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mongolia alongside Nepalese government ministries, financial-sector regulators and investigative agencies. Discussions cover current money laundering and terrorist financing risks, as well as regulatory, supervisory and judicial perspectives and capacity building. The first day included papers on Nepal’s AML/CFT regime in light of the 2023 mutual evaluation and on trade- and service-based money laundering countermeasures, plus a supervisory-focused panel on consolidated and coordinated efforts. The second day agenda includes presentations on regulatory tools and techniques to detect money laundering, proliferation financing and terrorist financing, including data analytics and technology in supervision; lessons from Mongolia’s journey from increased monitoring to delisting; and the use of financial intelligence unit report dissemination in investigations, followed by a judicial-perspectives panel and closing remarks.

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