# MENAFATF

> MENAFATF (Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force): The same machinery, across the Gulf and North Africa. Region: Middle East & Africa. Attribution required: A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.

Part of the Soda Labs Privacy Hub regulation map, which reads the instruments
themselves rather than summarising the summaries: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation

## Key facts

- Entry type: Regulator or standard-setter
- Region: Middle East & Africa
- Subject: The same machinery, across the Gulf and North Africa
- Authority: Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Attribution required. A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.
- Tags: FATF-style regional body, Gulf and North Africa, mutual evaluation, transmission mechanism
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-menafatf

## What it actually says

The regional counterpart to the Asian body, and the reason the Gulf entries in this section rhyme with one another. Its members include every UAE and Gulf jurisdiction covered here, along with Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and its evaluations are the route by which the global standards become national obligations. It is worth knowing about when reading the Gulf rulebooks, because the striking thing about them is not that they follow the standards but that several went further than the standards required, prohibiting anonymity-enhanced assets by name when the FATF recommendations ask only for risk-based treatment.

## The instruments that matter

- **Formed in 2004 at Manama**: established by agreement among member governments as the FATF-style regional body for the region
- **Members**: including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and others
- **Active on virtual assets**: it has run regional work on new payment methods and virtual assets, including a practical session on the misuse of virtual assets and providers for terrorist financing

## Sources

- [MENAFATF](https://www.menafatf.org/node/1143)
- [FATF on MENAFATF](https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/countries/global-network/middle-east-and-north-africa-financial-action-task-force--menafa.html)

## Related entries

- [APG](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-apg): How the global standards actually reach Asia
- [DFSA and ADGM FSRA](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-uae-free-zones): The regulators that went after the tools, not just the assets
- [VARA](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-vara): The most explicit prohibition in any rulebook
- [Bahrain](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bahrain): A listing test written against effects, not asset names
- [Egypt](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-egypt): Crypto barred, so data protection is the live constraint
- [Kenya](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-kenya): The ban written into primary legislation, not a rulebook