PARIS: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday announced that it is retaining Pakistan on the grey list.
President Dr Marcus Pleyer is addressing a post-plenary conference. Dr Pleyer announced that Pakistan remains on the “increased monitoring list”.
According to the president, Pakistan has two concurrent action plans with a total of 34 action plan items. “It has now addressed, or largely addressed 30 of the items,” he said.
“It’s most recent action plan from June this year which largely focused on money laundering deficiencies was issued after FATF’s regional partner APG (Asian Pacific Group) identified a number of serious issues.
Overall, Pakistan is making “good progress” on the new action plan, he said, adding that of the 7 new items, four have been “addressed or largely addressed”.
He said this includes showing that financial supervisors are conducting on-site and off-site checks on non-financial sector businesses and inacting legislative amendments to improve international cooperation.
Dr Pleyer also spoke of Pakistan’s earlier action plan, dating back to June 2018, and which focuses on terrorist financing issues, “Pakistan is still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items”.
He said Pakistan still needs to demonstrate investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN designated terror groups.
“I thank the Pakistani government for their continued strong commitment to this process.”
The FATF held a meeting in Paris which began on October 19 and concludes today, October 21.
As per reports, the task force reviewed the Asia Pacific Group’s report on Pakistan’s compliance with the watchdog’s prescribed action items.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan has been on the FATF’s increased monitoring list, known as the grey list, since June 2018.
During the meeting, the global watchdog finalised key reports, including the revised guidance on virtual assets and their service providers, and discussed the next steps to strengthen its standards on transparency of beneficial ownership.
On Wednesday, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir said that Pakistan has fulfilled 26 out of 27 conditions set by the FATF.
“Pakistan will soon come out of the grey list,” he said.
According to the pre-meeting agenda available on FATF’s website, the global watchdog planned to update its statements identifying jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Delegates — representing 205 members of the Global Network and observer organisations including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units — also discussed the outcomes of the FATF’s survey to identify areas where divergent anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules or their implementation cause friction for cross-border payments. FATF is leading work on this aspect of the G20’s priority to improve cross-border payments.
Pakistan remains under ‘increased monitoring’
It should be recalled that on June 25, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list of countries. However, the body said that it recognises Pakistan’s progress and efforts to address items in its country action plan that pertain to combating the financing of terrorism and has encouraged it to continue progress and address as soon as possible “the one remaining CFT-related item”.
It also handed over the government six new anti-money laundering areas to work on.
Addressing a press conference after the June 21-25 plenary meeting concluded in Paris, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan would remain under “increased monitoring”.
“The Pakistani government has made substantial progress in making its counter-terrorist financing systems stronger and more effective. It has largely addressed.
