Pakistan remains on grey list of FATF

The Financial Action Task Force kept Pakistan on the grey list on Thursday after its three-day plenary session ended. The global financial watchdog said that Pakistan addressed or largely addressed 30 of the 34 action plan items.

“Pakistan remains under increased monitoring (grey list). The Pakistan government has two concurrent action plans, with a total of 34 action plan items. It has now addressed or largely addressed 30 of the items,” Dr Marcus Pleyer, the FATF president, said.

Pakistan has been asked by FATF to demonstrate ‘an increase in MB investigations and prosecutions and that proceeds of crime continue to be restrained and confiscated in line with its risk profile, including working with foreign counterparts to trace, freeze, and confiscate assets.’

Pakistan was placed on Paris-based FATF's grey list for gaps in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes in June 2018. The FATF gave Pakistan three months in June this year to fulfil the remaining conditions by October.

The FATF asked Pakistan to address issues regarding the investigation and prosecution of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups. FATF’s Pleyer however noted that the country largely addressed ‘26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018.’

The FATF also placed Turkey under surveillance and said there are serious offences remaining regarding the nation’s control over financial operations, news agency AFP reported. On the Afghanistan issue, the FATF said that it will continue to monitor closely any changes to money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the war-torn nation.

It also stressed that the Afghan territory must not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts.

The FATF congratulated Mauritius and Botswana after they were removed from the ‘grey list’.