More powers for regulators against money laundering

ISLAMABAD: At least five premier Pakistani regulators will cooperate with their foreign counterparts and make reciprocal arrangements to share, request and receive information relating to money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT).

They include the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP); the Supervisory Board for National Savings Schemes and Pakistan Post and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for real estate agents, jewellers, dealers in precious metals and precious stones and accountants who are not members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP).

According to the recent amendments in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, there will be self-regulatory bodies (SRBs) for the AML/CFT regulatory authorities. They will be the ICAP and ICMAP for their respective members, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) for lawyers and other independent legal professionals that are enrolled under the PBC or provincial bar councils and any other SRB notified by the federal government.

Prominent lawyer Kashif Malik, who explained to The News the salient features of the AMLA Act, said that it was a draconian piece of legislation. There will be a National Executive Committee (NEC), which will consist of the minister for finance or advisor to the prime minister on finance, and ministers for foreign affairs, law and justice, interior and EconomicAffairs Division, the SBP governor, SECP chairman; director general military operations, a senior official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), chief of the financial monitoring unit (FMU), director general of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) cell and any other member to be nominated by the federal government.

Within 30 days of the passage of this law, the federal government will constitute the NEC, which will be responsible for making recommendations for effective implementation of the AML Act and the framing of national policy to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism; make recommendations to determine offences existing in Pakistan that may be considered to be predicate offences for the purposes of the AML Act; formulate recommendations on the application of counter-measures as called for by the FATF to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism; provide guidance and recommendations in framing of rules and regulations; approve, review and oversee the implementation of a national strategy to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism; seek reports from competent authorities as required; include an annual report containing overall analysis of the STRs and CTRs; statistics concerning the investigations and prosecutions conducted in relation to the offences of money laundering and the financing of terrorism in Pakistan; and statistics of supervisory actions taken by the AML/CFT regulatory authorities or by the oversight body for SRB. It will call for reports from the AML/CFT regulatory authorities, the oversight body for the SRB, investigating and prosecuting agencies.

The NEC will discuss any other issue of national importance relating to money laundering and the financing of terrorism; and undertake and perform such other functions as assigned to it by the federal government, relating to money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

It may constitute one or more sub-committees to perform such functions as it may deem fit, and may delegate or assign its functions to the general committee or a subcommittee, if deemed appropriate.

The federal government will constitute a general committee, which will comprise secretaries of finance, interior, foreign affairs, law, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chief, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general, the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) chief, the SBP Deputy Governor, SECP Commissioner, FMU director general, Director General Military Operations, and an ISI official.

The general committee will assist the NEC and invite any person to participate in the meeting as it deems necessary. It will develop a national strategy to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism; issue necessary directions to the investigating or prosecuting agencies, the AML/CFT regulatory authorities, FMU and any other authority appointed by the government involved in the implementation and administration of the AML Act, including measures for development and performance review of such agencies and authorities; seek reports from the competent authorities as required, including an annual report containing overall analysis of the Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) and currency transaction reports (CTRs); statistics concerning the investigations and prosecutions conducted in relation to the offences of money laundering and the financing of terrorism in Pakistan; statistics of supervisory actions taken by the AML/CFT regulatory authorities or by the oversight body.