The National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing was established pursuant to Article (29) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. (39) of 2022 and its amendments, which was entrusted with powers and competencies pursuant to the provisions of Articles (30, 31) as follows:

1.      Establish and follow up on the implementation of policies and strategies to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. In doing so, the Committee may, as necessary, coordinate with other entities that are not represented in it.

2.      Coordinate with competent and supervisory authorities to develop and implement policies, activities and procedures to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing and activate the necessary policies for cooperation among these authorities and the Unit to facilitate the flow of information between them and guarantee data protection and privacy.

3.      Identify high-risk jurisdictions based on FATF calls, and notify financial institutions and DNFBPs of such through supervisory authorities to implement enhanced due diligence measures in line with the risk level.

4.      Take effective and risk-proportionate counter-measures based on FATF calls or based on the initiative of the Committee and notify all relevant parties to implement such measures.

5.      Keep abreast of international and regional developments in the field of AML/CFT.

6.      Represent the State in international AML/CFT forums.

7.      Submit annual reports on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing or countering predicate offenses to the President of the State.

8.      Discuss and adopt the Unit’s budget.

9.      Appoint a Director for the Unit based on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Committee for a term of 5 years, renewable once.

10.    Establish policies that guarantee the Unit’s work independence.

11.    Establish the necessary regulations to implement the provisions of the present Decree Law and submit such to the Cabinet for issuance.

12.    Issue the necessary instructions to implement the provisions of the present Decree Law.

13.    Notify financial institutions and DNFBPs of concerns arising from vulnerabilities in the AML/CFT regimes of other countries, through their supervisory authorities.

14.    Adopt an analytical and statistical report on ML and TF typologies.

15.    Identify any activities, businesses or other professions that are not included in the present Decree Law, as financial institutions or DNFBPs.

16.    Grant administrative and financial privileges to employees of the Unit based on the recommendation of the Unit’s Director, in line with regulations implemented in the Unit.

This committee shall include:

It shall include:

a.       The Governor of the PMA or the vice governor in their absence as Chairman.

b.      The Public Prosecutor or one of their assistants as member.

c.       A representative of the Ministry of Justice as member.

d.      A representative of the Ministry of Interior as member.

e.       A representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as member.

f.       A representative of the PMA as member.

g.       The General Director of the Palestine Capital Market Authority (PCMA), as member.

h.      The company registrar, as member.

i.       The General Director of Customs, Excise and VAT, as member.

j.       A financial expert, as member.