Pak delegation off to Bangkok to attend FATF meeting

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sent its high-powered delegation to Bangkok for attending plenary session of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for two days starting from May 22 in order to brief the forum about the steps taken by Islamabad against money laundering and terror financing in last-ditch efforts to avoid falling into grey list by next month.

“Yes, we have sent a high powered delegation to attend this session convened by FATF for outlining action plan in consultation with all stakeholders,” one top official of government confirmed to The News here on Tuesday night.

This meeting is aimed at formulating an action plan to combat money laundering and terror financing after analysing performance of different countries. “Pakistan will brief about its action which the government passed through Finance Bill 2018 with approval of the Parliament for taxing foreign jurisdictions and helping the country to curb money laundering under mutual assistance agreement with OECD and other bilateral countries,” said the official sources.

All ministries concerned have deliberated upon internal strategy and held hours-long meeting in Ministry of Finance in recent days to spell out roadmap going to be presented during this two-day meeting at Bangkok. The Ministry of Finance, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Law Enforcing Agencies, Nacta and FBR participated in hours long meeting to finalise Pakistan’s stance for this two days meeting.

The purpose of the plenary meeting is to ensure the adoption, implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards as set out in the FATF Forty Recommendations and FATF Eight Special Recommendations.

The effort includes assisting countries and territories of the region in enacting laws to deal with the proceeds of crime, mutual legal assistance, confiscation, forfeiture and extradition; providing guidance in setting up systems for reporting and investigating suspicious transactions and helping in the establishment of financial intelligence units. The APG also enables regional factors to be taken into account in the implementation of anti-money laundering measures.

The origins of this to go back to "awareness raising" activities undertaken by the FATF in the early 1990s as part of its strategy to encourage adoption of money laundering counter-measures throughout the world. In order to achieve more concrete results, Australia agreed to set up a Secretariat for the purpose of obtaining regional commitment and establishing a regional FATF-style body with practical objectives. Subsequently, an agreement was reached in Bangkok in 1997 which created the APG. The first meeting was held in Tokyo in 1998 and then annually thereafter.

Following the events of 11 September 2001, the APG expanded its scope to include the countering of terrorist financing.

The APG conducts mutual evaluations of its members and holds a periodic workshop on money laundering methods and trends. Its work mandate has been set out in a document containing specific terms of reference for the group.

The APG is supported by a Secretariat, which serves as the focal point for its activities. The APG became an Associate Member of the FATF in 2006.