The World Customs Organization, together with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), will host this Forum, an annual forum focusing on the identification of sub-regional hotzones at high risk of transnational criminal organization (TCO), money laundering, terrorism/terrorism financing and illicit financial flows.

The Forum will provide a much needed opportunity for the discussion, analysis and evaluation of the highest priority hot-zones across the globe. The prioritization list generated through this Forum will allow FIUs and Customs agencies to focus their efforts on specific geographical regions as well as implement targeted methodologies to address Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorism Financing (TF) risk more efficiently and effectively. The prioritization list will serve for three years, with an annual review to ensure newly identified AML/CTF trends are taken into account.

Furthermore, the prioritization list will serve as a guide for the WCO and the Egmont Group to better place their collective capacity building efforts and operational efforts to combat international organized crime and terrorist groups more effectively.

The Hot Zone Prioritization Forum is one component within the WCO – Project OCTAGON.