Pakistan 'lagging' in FATF targets on checking terror funding

Islamabad, September 13

The Asia-Pacific Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, has rated Pakistan’s level of effectiveness as ‘low’ on 10 out of 11 international goals on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terror, a media report said on Tuesday.

The Asia-Pacific Group (APG), Sydney-based regional affiliate of the FATF, released an update as of September 2 on the rating of its regional members suggesting that Pakistan had a “moderate level of effectiveness” on only one out of 11 outcomes, reported a daily.

Under this “immediate outcome”, Pakistan extends international cooperation on appropriate information, financial intelligence and evidence and facilitates action against criminals and their assets.

A 15-member joint delegation of the FATF and APG paid an onsite visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country’s compliance with a 34-point action plan committed with FATF at the highest level in June 2018, the report said.

The task force had found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country’s exit from the grey list.

Under the FATF-APG assessment mechanism, effective ratings on “immediate outcomes” reflect the extent to which a country’s measures are effective.

The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that are effective against money laundering and combating the financing of terror system.

However, this has no direct bearing on an expected exit of Pakistan from FATF’s grey list during its October 18-22 plenary in Paris.

Last month, the APG had described Pakistan as ‘compliant’ or ‘largely compliant’ on 38 out of 40 technical recommendations of the FATF on anti-money laundering and combating financing of terror.

The APG noted that Pakistan had a low level of effectiveness on 10 “Immediate Outcomes (IOs)” under international standards against money laundering and terror financing.

The first IO on which the effectiveness is rated as moderate is that money laundering and terror-financing are understood and, where appropriate, actions coordinated domestically to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation, the report said. — PTI

FATF team was recently in Pak

• Under the FATF-APG assessment mechanism, ratings on “immediate outcomes” reflect the extent to which a country’s measures are effective
• The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that are effective against money laundering and combating the financing of the terror system
• Pakistan has a “moderate level of effectiveness” on only one of 11 the outcomes