Pakistan's fate at FATF hangs in the balance

ISLAMABAD: As the global watch dog for money laundering and terror financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), gears up to conduct its virtual plenary meeting from October 21 to 23 in Paris, Pakistan is keeping its fingers crossed with hopes of being taken off the grey list.

ZahidHafeezChaudhri, spokesperson for the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, has stated that the FATF Action Plan is being implemented since 2018 and "significant progress has been made in this regard". "The process of FATF is ongoing. Pakistan is implementing the FATF Action Plan since 2018 and we have made significant progress in this regard. Our entire AML/CFT regime has been revamped in compliance with the Action Plan to bring it to the international standards set by the FATF," he said.

"The substantial progress made by Pakistan under a huge national effort includes steps in legislative, regulatory and operational domains," he added.

However, the country's progress still does not comply with the 27-point Action Plan provided by the FATF, making Pakistan's hopes of removal from the grey list gloomier.

In the recent Follow-Up Report (FUR), released by the FATF's Asian Pacific Group (APG), revealed that Pakistan has been non-compliant (NC) on at least four recommendations, largely compliant (LC) on eight and partially compliant (PC) on at least 28 out of 40 recommendations. (IANS)

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