ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is hopeful to exit the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) this week as the two-day plenary of the global dirty money watchdog begins in Paris today (Thursday).
In a meeting in June, the FATF said it was keeping Pakistan on the list – also known as the “grey list” – but said it might be removed after an on-site visit to verify progress.
Last month, Pakistan’s foreign office said a FATF technical team had conducted a “successful” visit and Islamabad was expecting a “logical conclusion” of the evaluation process in October.
Pakistani officials say the country has successfully implemented 34 action points to counter money laundering and terrorism financing and will be removed from the “increased monitoring list,” commonly known as the grey list, to which it was added in June 2018.
The list includes countries with weak financial systems that can be exploited by criminal elements for money laundering and terrorism financing. Countries on the list are formally required to pledge to work with FATF to strengthen their financial systems. Pakistan was initially given a 27-point action plan, which was later enhanced to 34.
“The plenary will make the final decision on Pakistan’s grey list status Friday.” An official at Pakistan’s Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), who supervised the implementation of the 34-point action plan was quoted as saying in Arab News
“Things are in process at the moment,” Samina Chagani, deputy-director at the FMU, said. “We have done our job and things will now be discussed at the plenary.”
The FATF plenary will be held on October 20-21 and attended by delegates representing 206 members of the Global Network and observer organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank, Interpol and Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
In June this year, the global watchdog recognized Pakistan’s progress in implementing the 34-point action plan but kept the country on the grey list, saying it would carry out onsite inspection to verify the country’s progress.
A 15-member joint delegation of the FATF and its Sydney-based regional affiliate, the Asia Pacific Group, then paid a visit to Pakistan between August 29 and September 2 to verify its compliance with the action plan.
