Pakistan, FATF talks begin in Islamabad
SECP officials and SBPs Monitoring Unit will also brief the visiting group.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The three-day talks between Pakistan and a delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering — a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) started on Monday in which the APG assessment team will discuss the second draft Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) with the relevant stakeholders.
The dialogues between Pakistan and a group of six members of the FATF has started in Islamabad in which a group of experts from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is being briefed by the Pakistani officials over progress on global standards against financial crimes to warrant its exclusion from the watchdog s grey list.
According to Dunya News, officials from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and concerned departments are participating in the dialogues.
Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) officials and SBP’s Monitoring Unit will also brief the visiting group.
Sources said that Pakistan will continue its efforts to warrant its exclusion from the watchdog s grey list.
The FATF officials will be briefed about the steps taken to stop money laundering.
The Paris-based global body is working to curb terrorism financing and money laundering.
In February, FATF directed Pakistan to take more steps to curb money laundering.
The country has taken certain steps since the February 18-22 meetings with FATF functionaries to comply with latest instructions to meet various deadlines in order to avoid being included in a blacklist. It declared as “high risk” all the eight entities and related elements specifically named by FATF as threats to the global financial system.
Sources said that India had taken an aggressive stance against Pakistan in the FATF and Islamabad had repeatedly called for removal of Indian vice president from the APG.
In June last year, Pakistan made a commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its terrorism financing-related deficiencies by implementing an action plan to accomplish these objectives.
FATF, a global body that combats terror financing and money laundering, had taken the decision to place Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ during a plenary meeting in February 2018.
Pakistan was formally added to the ‘grey list’ of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorism and related causes after a June 2018 meeting of FATF in Paris. The country was also included in the list from 2012 to 2015.
