United Nations Algeria Guiding Principles & public-private partnerships

On 6 January 2025, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee adopted the “Non-binding guiding principles on preventing, detecting and disrupting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes”, to be known and referred to as the “Algeria Guiding Principles”. The “Algeria Guiding Principles” were prepared in accordance with the “Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes” - a non-binding document, adopted by the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee in India on 28-29 October 2022 - in a manner consistent with international law.

Innovations in financial technologies may offer significant economic opportunities, but may also present a risk of being misused, including for terrorist purposes.

The purpose and focus of these non-binding guiding principles is to assist Member States in enhancing relevant national countering the financing of terrorism measures and strengthening international cooperation. In particular, the “Algeria Guiding Principles” aim to support Member States in their efforts to:

1) Enhance evidence-based understanding of the terrorism-financing risks associated with new and emerging financial technologies and fundraising methods. In their efforts to analyse threats, risks and vulnerabilities associated with the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist financing purposes, Member States should consider, among other things, taking steps to ensure that financial institutions conduct their own risk assessments prior to the launch of new products, business practices or the use of new or developing technologies, and taking appropriate measures to manage and mitigate those risks;

2) Develop and implement risk-based proportionate regulation, monitoring and supervision to prevent the abuse of new technologies for terrorism-financing purposes. In their efforts to adequately regulate, monitor and supervise providers of new and emerging payment services, Member States should consider, among other things, ensuring that national risk-based Anti-Money Laundering/Countering The Financing Of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks apply to virtual asset service providers in line with the Financial Action Task Force Standards (International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation) to ensure the traceability of transactions, including through the implementation of the so-called “Financial Action Task Force travel rule” that requires virtual asset service providers and other financial institutions to share relevant originator and beneficiary information alongside certain virtual asset transactions;

3) Effectively detect and disrupt such abuses. In their efforts to effectively detect and disrupt the abuse of new technologies for the purposes of terrorist financing, Member States should consider, among other things:
• Developing robust public-private partnerships to share information, enhance understanding of evolving trends, increase the knowledge and skills of relevant experts and stakeholders, including gatekeepers, and help to strengthen the integrity of the financial sector. Such partnerships should include dialogue between financial intelligence units and the relevant financial technology sector with regard to data-sharing as part of suspicious activity reporting, with a clear legal basis for the sharing of information, including criteria and purposes for which information may be shared and the entities with which it can be shared. With regard to social media, such public-private partnerships help to ensure that the CFT efforts of social media companies are informed and effective. Public-private partnerships have also served as a useful forum for the authorities to disseminate regular guidance to the private sector, including risk indicators;
• Building upon effective public-private partnerships to use the available technology and data, including blockchain intelligence, to enhance operational and tactical analysis, map terrorist financial networks, and track and report suspicious activity; and

4) Evaluate the effectiveness and any unintended consequences of the measures set up to counter the financing of terrorism related to new technologies. In their efforts to evaluate impact and any unintended consequences of new CFT measures related to new technologies on human rights, financial inclusion, legitimate non-profit organization activities as well as on exclusively humanitarian activity carried out by impartial humanitarian actors in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law, and to effectively mitigate those consequences, States should consider, among other things, as financial technologies continue to evolve and their use in AML/CFT is increasing, strengthening independent oversight and accountability mechanisms for relevant measures in accordance with the due process and procedural safeguards. Oversight mechanisms should also ensure that relevant public-private partnerships adhere to data protection or privacy obligations under national legislation as well as applicable international law.

The non-binding guiding principles do not purport to impose any legal obligations upon States.

London 2025 UIA Business Law Forum
Public-private partnerships – recalled in the aforesaid non-binding guiding principle 3) (“Effectively detect and disrupt the abuse of new technologies for the purposes of terrorist financing”) of the “Algeria Guiding Principles” - will be discussed during the Banking and Financial Services Law Commission panel at the 16th UIA Annual Business Law Forum that will take place in London (United Kingdom) from June 05 to June 06, 2025. We are looking forward to meeting you at this Forum!

Barbara Bandiera,
President of the UIA Banking and Financial Services Law Commission,
Milan, Italy