ISLAMABAD – A delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on moneylaundering — a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)— will arrive here on Monday (today) to assess whether Pakistan has madeenough progress on global standards against money laundering and fake bankaccounts – necessary prerequisites for getting excluded from the FATF’sgrey list.
The three-day talks will formally commence from Tuesday when the APGassessment team will discuss the second draft Mutual Evaluation Report(MER) with the relevant stakeholders.
If Pakistan fails to satisfy the FATF delegation to remove its name fromthe grey list, then a new plan of action can be given to the country.
the experts from the ministries and other key institutions would get anopportunity to explain and convince the assessors about Pakistan’sperformance.
In February, FATF directed Pakistan to take more steps to curb moneylaundering.
The country has taken certain steps since the February 18-22 meetings withFATF functionaries to comply with latest instructions to meet variousdeadlines in order to avoid being included in a blacklist. It declared as“high risk” all the eight entities and related elements specifically namedby FATF as threats to the global financial system.
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Sources said that India had taken an aggressive stance against Pakistan inthe FATF and Islamabad had repeatedly called for removal of Indian vicepresident from the APG.
In June last year, Pakistan made a commitment to work with the FATF and APGto strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its terrorismfinancing-related deficiencies by implementing an action plan to accomplishthese objectives.
FATF, a global body that combats terror financing and money laundering, hadtaken the decision to place Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ during a plenarymeeting in February 2018.
