The FATF (Financial Action Task Force; GAFI in Portuguese and Spanish) is the intergovernmental body that sets the global standards for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. The Wolfsberg Group is an association of major banks that publishes operational compliance best practices, such as sanctions and list screening guidance. In short: the FATF defines what must be done; Wolfsberg guides how to do it well.
What the FATF is
Created in 1989, the FATF is an intergovernmental body that establishes the international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT). Its standards are adopted by more than 200 jurisdictions and form the basis of local rules, in Brazil, for example, the Central Bank and COAF regulations reflect these guidelines.
The FATF Recommendations
The core of the FATF's work is its Recommendations, a set of standards guiding how countries and institutions should prevent financial crime. Among the most cited in customer screening are Recommendation 6 (targeted financial sanctions), Recommendation 11 (record keeping for audit) and Recommendation 12 (treatment of Politically Exposed Persons, PEPs). They define obligations, not tools: they say what must be controlled.
What the Wolfsberg Group is
The Wolfsberg Group is an association of major international banks, created in 2000, that publishes compliance guidelines and best practices. Unlike the FATF, it is not an intergovernmental body and issues no mandatory rules: its documents are voluntary market references, widely used on operational topics such as sanctions screening and false-positive handling.
The FATF and Wolfsberg: the difference
The two are complementary, not interchangeable. The FATF defines the regulatory standard, the “what” of the obligation (for example: apply enhanced due diligence to PEPs). Wolfsberg defines operational best practices, the technical “how” (for example: how to calibrate name matching to reduce false positives without letting a sanction slip through). One is about the obligation; the other, about high-quality execution.
Why it matters for your company
Following these references strengthens the defensibility of your compliance program before auditors, partner banks and regulators: it shows the controls were not improvised but designed according to recognized standards. A note on wording: following the guidelines is not the same as being certified by these bodies, they publish standards, but issue no seal.
How Orvyan aligns
Orvyan is built according to the guidelines of the FATF and the screening best practices of the Wolfsberg Group: each type of match is handled according to its regulatory role, and screening is calibrated to tell name coincidences apart from real matches. Orvyan holds no seal, certification or accreditation from these bodies, they publish standards, and the platform was designed to mirror them. Its role is supporting: the platform classifies and recommends, but the decision is always your company's.