Financial Action Task Force retains Pakistan on grey list: President FATF

PARIS:– The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday announced that Pakistan will continue to remain on its grey.

The decision was announced on Thursday at the conclusion of the three-day plenary session of the FATF to discuss key issues.

FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan remains under increased monitoring (grey list). Islamabad has two concurrent action plans, with a total of 34 action plan items and it has now addressed or largely addressed 30 of the items.

He said that this included showing that financial supervisors are conducting on-site and off-site checking on non-financial sector businesses and enacting legislative amendments to improve international cooperation.

Commenting on the action plan devised in 2018 which focused on terror financing, the FATF president said that Pakistan was still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items.

“Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but needs to further demonstrate that investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN designated terror groups,” he said.

All these changes are about helping authorities stop corruption, preventing terrorism and organised criminals from benefitting from their crimes, he said, thanking the government for their “continued strong commitment” to the process.

In the briefing, FATF president Marcus Pleyer also said that three new countries – Turkey, Jordan, and Mali – have also been added to the Grey List. “Serious issues remain” in Turkey s controls over financial operations, FATF head Marcus Pleyer said at a press conference.

The body placed Turkey on its grey list of countries under increased monitoring due to strategic deficiencies in their regimes to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Pleyer said the Turkish government made a commitment to continue its efforts to improve its anti-money laundering system. “I urge them to turn this commitment into action,” he added.

Earlier in June this year, the FATF while expressing satisfaction over Pakistan’s progress and appreciating the high-level political commitment to work with global and regional anti-money laundering watchdogs, had retained Pakistan on its  grey list .

FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer had said that Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 measures, however, that the action plan on financial terrorism still needed to be addressed.

Pleyer also thanked the Pakistan government for their continued commitment to address the concerns and make the necessary changes they were asked to effect.

It is now three years since Islamabad had been on the body’s grey list. For a country to be on the grey list impacts foreign investment flow in the country impacting the economy. Pakistan was put on the FATF grey list in June 2018.