Pakistan to remain on FATF grey list till Feb 2020

PARIS: Pakistan will remain on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list till February 2020, after the country was asked to meet the standards set by the global watchdog, Geo News reported.

Addressing a press conference, FATF president said Pakistan had made progress towards money laundering and terror financing. “The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020,” the global watch dog said in a statement.

According to a press release of finance ministry, the FATF Plenary meeting decided to maintain status quo on the FATF Action Plan and allow the usual 12 months observation period for the Asia/Pacific Group’s (APG) Mutual Evaluation Report (MER).

The FATF Plenary meeting was held in Paris from October 13 to 18. The Pakistan delegation was led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division, Muhammad Hammad Azhar.The FATF meeting considered Pakistan’s progress report on the FATF Action Plan and Pakistan’s APG Mutual Evaluation Report.

Pakistan’s delegation reaffirmed its political commitment to fully implement the Action Plan. The delegation also held sideline meetings with various delegations and briefed them about the progress made by Pakistan on the FATF Action Plan and steps taken for strengthening its AML/CFT framework.

A session on technical assistance and training needs of Pakistan was also organised in collaboration with UNODC and APG Secretariat which was attended by a number of interested countries and multilateral agencies including China, USA, UK, Canada, Japan, EU, World Bank, IMF and ADB.

Last year, FATF had placed Pakistan on a grey list of countries responsible for terror-financing, presenting Islamabad with a 27-point action plan to adopt strict anti-money laundering measures.

In June this year, the financial body gave Pakistan another four months to impenitent the action plan. This week, the FATF reviewed a compliance report of Pakistan in this regard.