FATF
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FATF publishes good practices for supervising offshore virtual asset service providers
FATF's offshore-VASP good practices map the licensing gaps and laundering typologies VASP supervisors and monitoring teams can screen against
Change
On 11 March 2026 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published good practices for detecting, licensing, supervising and sanctioning offshore virtual asset service providers (VASPs) — those created in one jurisdiction but serving clients in another — documenting the supervisory gaps and laundering typologies criminals exploit for fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing.
Why it matters
FATF frames offshore VASP activity as a supervisory-coverage gap: under half of jurisdictions apply activity-based regulation that captures providers by what they do in a market rather than where they are based, leaving blind spots criminals exploit. The good practices cover detecting offshore providers serving local users, bringing them into licensing or registration, supervising them, and sanctioning non-compliant ones. The report documents laundering typologies — dispersed victim funds, layered intermediary wallets, and multi-chain or bridge-based obfuscation. As FATF guidance it is not directly binding; member jurisdictions are expected to reflect it, and its present value is as detection-typology and supervisory-practice intelligence.
Implications
- — Virtual-asset supervisors can use the good practices to assess whether their regime captures offshore VASPs serving local clients and, where an activity-based approach applies, to scope those providers into licensing, registration or supervisory coverage — the report is the baseline FATF expects member jurisdictions to reflect, though it is not itself binding.
- — AML/CFT and transaction-monitoring teams at VASPs can build detection scenarios for the offshore typologies FATF documents — layered intermediary wallets, dispersed victim funds, and multi-chain or bridge-based obfuscation — and surface nested relationships where unlicensed offshore providers reach services through individual customer accounts.
- — Country-risk and onboarding teams can use FATF's offshore-VASP risk framing to assess counterparties created in one jurisdiction and serving another, pending any national rules that convert the good practices into enforceable obligations.
Who is affected
- — Virtual-asset supervisors and regulators evaluating offshore-VASP coverage
- — AML/CFT and transaction-monitoring teams at VASPs building detection for offshore laundering typologies
- — Country-risk and onboarding teams assessing offshore-VASP counterparties