According to Indian officials, the FATF’s (Financial Action Task Force) Asia Pacific Group has ranked Pakistan in ‘enhanced blacklist’ for failure to meet global standards, reported PTI.
The Indian officials also told PTI that “FATF finds Pakistan non-compliant on 32 of 40 compliance parameters on money laundering and terror financing.”
The Pakistan Finance Ministry, however, has denied the reports of the FATF having ranked Pakistan in its ‘enhanced blacklist’.
“News reports published about Pakistan being blacklisted by APG (Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering) are incorrect and baseless,” ANI reported on Friday, quoting the Pakistan Finance Ministry.
On 21 August, Pakistan had submitted a compliance report, placing before the FATF a 27-point action plan that will determine the country’s exit from the grey list of the anti-money laundering watchdog by October.
News reports suggest that the FATF is currently undertaking an evaluation in Canberra (Australia) which includes Pakistan’s progress in financial and insurance services sector.
On 8 August 2019, the FATF said that Pakistan had failed to complete its action plan on terror financing, reported PTI.
In 2018, the FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list of countries considering that the country’s domestic laws were not enough to curb money laundering and terror financing.
An adviser on behalf of the Imran Khan’s government had briefed a US delegation in August 2019 about the measures related to economic reforms and implementation of the FATF Action Plan.
“The US delegation had rather strong position on taking actions against banned outfits, their activities and movements of their leaderships and key operatives and wanted some visible progress by the authorities to address adverse opinions from majority of FATF members,” an official from Pakistan’s team was quoted in August 2019.
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