The world’s major industrialized nations have agreed on a new set of measures to target channels used to finance terrorism around the world.

The agreement comes after finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven economies held two days of meetings in Sendai, northern Japan.

Planned new measures include enhancing G-7 information exchange and cooperation, assessing appropriate changes to international standards on counter-terrorist finance, ensuring the best use of financial sanctions and reinforcing the work of the Financial Action Task Force, according to an action plan released at the meeting’s conclusion.

“Now is the time to act to fight the financing of terror,” French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told reporters in Sendai. Sapin and U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne have been leading the push for agreement on the new measures.

… “As finance is the life blood of terrorist groups, the focus on tracking the financial flows and creating the mechanisms for dismantling the financial infrastructure of both Islamic State and their associates is vital,” said Rohan Gunaratna, who runs the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.