Glossary
CFT (combating the financing of terrorism)
CFT covers the controls that detect and block funds intended to support terrorism, even when the money itself comes from legal sources.
CFT (combating the financing of terrorism) explained
Combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) is the counterpart to AML. Where money laundering hides the criminal origin of funds, terrorist financing is about the destination: money that may be perfectly legal in origin but is being moved to support violence or those who plan it.
Because the source can be clean, CFT controls lean on who is receiving the money and the pattern of the flows rather than on where the money came from. Sanctions screening against United Nations and other designated lists, unusual small transfers to high-risk destinations, and donations that do not match a customer's profile are typical signals.
AML and CFT are usually run as a single programme, often written as AML/CFT, because the same customer knowledge, monitoring and reporting machinery serves both.
Why it matters in life insurance
Zambia's Anti-Terrorism and Non-Proliferation Act No. 6 of 2018 sets out terrorism-financing and proliferation-financing offences, and the FATF Recommendations, which Zambia follows as a member of ESAAMLG, expect institutions to screen against UN designations without delay. Regulated institutions therefore need continuous screening rather than periodic checks. In ERMAML, the Ontech Risk & Compliance Suite, sanctions screening runs across customers and payments as a single gate that covers both AML and CFT designations.
Related terms
AML (anti-money laundering) · Sanctions screening · STR (suspicious transaction report)