The regime that FATF built: an introduction to the Financial Action Task Force

This article serves to introduce this special issue of Crime, Law, & Social Change on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It provides a primer on the history and purpose of FATF and lays out some of the central debates over FATF and the anti-money laundering (AML) regime. Finally, as a way of giving readers an overview of the articles in the special issue, it proposes a series of themes that academics and practitioners should consider in future research and work with FATF.