Need to do more to be off FATF list: Pak bank

Islamabad, October 29

Pakistan needs to put in more efforts to come out of the Grey List in the next meeting of the international terror financing watchdog FATF, the chief of country’s central bank has said.

Pakistan was placed on the Grey List by the Paris-based watchdog in June last year and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019, or face the risk of being placed on the Black List along with Iran and North Korea.

The FATF retained Pakistan on the Grey List and warned it of action for its failure in combating money laundering and terror financing. The decision was taken after a five-day plenary of the FATF held in Paris early this month.

It expressed dissatisfaction at the progress made by Pakistan and gave it a six-month deadline to complete the task.

“There was a major rethink of the approach being taken by the authorities in the early to mid-2019. Consequently, a number of steps were taken to significantly strengthen our approach to make progress on these issues,” said Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Reza Baqir on Monday.

However, Pakistan needs to put in more effort to progress on the remaining areas to ensure that it comes out of the Grey List at the next meeting of the FATF, he said.

Baqir claimed that progress was made between May and September to meet the action plan set by the FATF in different areas to demonstrate effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) safety regime of Pakistan. — PTI

‘Many measures taken’

A number of steps were taken to strengthen our approach to make progress on FATF-cited issues... However, Pakistan needs to put in more effort to progress on the remaining areas." —Reza Baqir, State Bank of Pakistan Governor