PARIS: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday that Pakistan has taken steps towards improving its anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and the body continues to work with the country to curb such activities.
In a tweet Finance Minister Asad Umar said “FATF board reviewed the progress made by Pakistan in strengthening its laws and systems related to curbing money laundering particularly terror related financial flows and maintained Pakistan’s current status despite hectic efforts lobbying to get us black listed.”
Pakistan had been hoping to get off a “grey list” of nations with inadequate controls over such activities. While there are no direct legal implications, it brings extra scrutiny from regulators and financial institutions that can chill trade and investment.
During the meet, India had pressed for Pakistan to be kept on the terrorism financing watchlist following an attack in occupied Kashmir that was reportedly claimed by JeM.
The global body said that since June 2018, Pakistan had taken steps to improve its AML and CFT regime including operationalising the integrated database for its currency declaration regime.
It noted that Pakistan had revised its terror financing (TF) risk assessment but it “did not demonstrate a proper understanding of the TF risks posed by Da’esh, al Qaeda, Jamat-ut-Dawa (JuD), Falah-e- Insaniat Foundation (FiF), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Haqqani Network and persons affiliated with the Taliban”.
The federal government has moved to ban JuD and FiF on Thursday during a high-powered National Security Committee (NSC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. JuD, FIF charities banned as govt seeks to rout extremism
FATF, however, maintained that Pakistan needed to show sanctions were being applied in cases of money laundering and terrorism financing, demonstrate better cooperation between authorities identifying illegal money flows, and enhance support for prosecutors, among other measures.
“Given the limited progress on action plan items due in January 2019, the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019,” it concluded.
