Pakistan Fails In 10 Out Of 11 International Targets, FATF Reveals

Pakistan fails in 10 out of 11 international targets of money laundering, and terror funding, FATF reveals.

The Asia-Pacific Group of the FATF, the global body to combat terrorist funding and money laundering, has described Pakistan’s work in 10 out of 11 international targets of Immediate Outcomes for terrorist funding and money laundering as weak.

The Asia-Pacific Group (APG), a Sydney-based regional partner of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), issued an update on the ratings of its regional members as of 2 September.

It said that measures to prevent money laundering and terror funding in Pakistan have not been rigorously implemented.

A 15-member joint delegation of FATF and APG visited Pakistan from 29 August to 2 September to verify the work on the 34-point action plan implemented in June 2018.

The task force in February this year found more or less work in all 34 points in Pakistan and decided to send a mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country’s exit from the gray list.

However, this is not going to have any direct impact on the possible exit of Pakistan from the gray list of FATF during the plenary session of 18-22 October in Paris.

Last month, the APG called Pakistan compliant with 38 of the FATF’s 40 technical recommendations on combating anti-money laundering and terror funding.

Pakistan fails in 10 out of 11 international targets: While Islamabad was retained on follow-up till further progress was made on the two remaining recommendations.

This means that Pakistan has made great progress on the technical recommendations of the FATF to get out of the gray list. Yet it is far behind meeting all the FATF norms.

The APG said that Pakistan’s performance on the 10 Immediate Outcomes (IOs) under the International Standards Against Money Laundering and Terror Funding was of a low standard.

The gray listing of the FATF makes it difficult for countries to conduct financial transactions and increases the cost of doing business.

According to experts, removing Pakistan from the gray list will help in improving its deteriorating economy.