ISLAMABAD: As the next meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is scheduled to be held in Paris later this week, Pakistan has already prepared its compliance report, which will be presented by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar.
The Pakistani delegation is scheduled to leave for France on October 13 as Pakistan’s case will be taken up on October 14 and 15, Dawn news reported Thursday. Meanwhile, the report finalised by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Wednesday has said that the comprehensive guideline developed by the Commission has helped financial institutions to generate 219 Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) in one year, as compared to 13 STRs in eight years.
To align itself with the FATF’s standards and its 40 recommendations, the Commission developed a set of regulations – SECP AML/CFT Regulations – in June 2018. The SECP has conducted 167 inspections, focusing on AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering / Combating Financing of Terrorism) compliance in the cases of 72 securities brokers, 27 non-banking financial companies, 13 insurance companies and 55 high-risk non-profit organisations.
The report has said that continuous awareness campaigns and efforts have resulted in improvement in compliance level by the regulated entities. Following the meeting, the FATF – the international money-laundering and terror-financing watchdog – will announce its decision to remove or retain Pakistan in its grey list.
Earlier this week, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) published its long-awaited 228-page report, titled “Mutual Evaluation Report 2019”, which said that Pakistan has largely but partially complied with 36 of the 40 parameters set by the FATF at the time of the country’s inclusion in the grey list.
The FATF review had placed Pakistan into a grey list on June 2018 and had given 27 action plans till September 2019 to comply for coming out from the grey list.
This upcoming review of the FATF meeting in Paris will now decide the fate of the country with three possibilities — excluding it from grey and put into green list, continuing it into grey list with extended period of nine to 12 months and thirdly in worst-case scenario putting the country into blacklist, having dire consequences for the country’s economy. IANS
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