FATF to decide Pakistan's fate this week

New Delhi, June 12

The global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), will this week decide whether to retain Pakistan on the Grey List. The FATF hybrid plenary meeting is taking place this week in Berlin and is the final one under the two-year Germany Presidency of Marcus Pleyer.

A major topic that will be discussed is updates to the jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring list (often referred to as the FATF grey list). In addition it will consider a report that will help the real estate sector to better detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

At the previous FATF plenary in March, FATF had retained Pakistan and included the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with which India signed a free-trade agreement less than a month back, in the list of jurisdictions requiring increased monitoring or the Grey List.

Though Pakistan receives bad press, in all, there are 17 countries on the Grey List. As against a handful of deficiencies, other countries have many more. Burkina Faso has 10 deficiencies, Senegal and Haiti nine; The Philippines, Myanmar, South Sudan, Myanmar, Mali and Jordan eight each; Uganda seven, Turkey two; Barbados, Yemen, Albania, Cambodia and Jamaica four each; and, The Cayman Islands two.

FATF has now appointed T. Raja Kumar of Singapore as the next President for a fixed two-year term from July 1.

FATF says Pakistan has completed 26 of the 27 action items in its 2018 action plan but needs to show that it has the will to speedily prosecute terror senior commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups.