On July 30, the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) hosted its 4^th capacity building workshop of 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with more than 250 participants joining both in-person and virtually.  The event focused on how Member States establish public-private partnerships to encourage continuous engagement with the financial sector, as well as strategies for ensuring terrorist finance-related targeted financial sanctions are communicated to the private sector without delay.  Financial institutions play a critical role in implementing AML/CFT measures, as they serve on the front lines of the fight to combat and disrupt terrorist financing. Financial information sharing is most effective when information flows in both direction between the public and private sectors. 

The workshop included presentations from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the finance team of the Presidency of State Security’s Permanent Counter Terrorism Committee), the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Kuwait, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  Additionally, the TFTC held a roundtable with banks from across the region to discuss U.S. sanctions relief for Syria and the management of terrorist financing risks in the country.  Coming on the heels of the TFTC’s 8^th joint designation targeting three ISIS West Africa financial facilitators, the TFTC seeks to ensure that ISIS is not able to regain foothold in Syria.

Additionally, on July 31, the TFTC held its third Executive Committee Meeting to discuss the priorities of the multilateral body, and an information sharing session to highlight specific typologies that malign actors use to facilitate sanctions evasion activity.

Through TFTC events, the multilateral body brings Member States together to tackle shared threats, strengthen coordination, and exchange practical lessons in the face of a dynamic and often difficult counter-terrorist financing landscape.  The TFTC remains focused on enhancing collective understanding of terrorist financing risk and supporting the adoption of global standards to combat such activity.