In a significant development, the APG, FATF’s major regional affiliate has blacklisted Pakistan for its failure to curb terror funding. The APG is currently meeting in Canberra, Australia where Pakistan has failed miserably to show improvements in set parametres for financial systems.
#Breaking | Big blow to Pakistan, as it has been blacklisted for shielding terror by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – APG. pic.twitter.com/BPDOe83VEJ
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 23, 2019
After global isolation of the terror state of Pakistan, the parody country was all set to face further humiliation a major affiliate group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is now on the verge of blacklisting Pakistan, reports India Today.
Pakistan, which has been already grey-listed by the FATF, has been put in the black-list by the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) of the FATF, one of the nine regional affiliates of the anti-money laundering watchdog.
The APG is currently meeting at Canberra in Australia conducting a five-year mutual evaluation of Pakistan’s progress on upgrading its systems in areas of financial and insurance services.
On Wednesday, Pakistan had submitted the compliance report on its 27-point action plan to the FATF, which is currently under review by the APG and has found Islamabad lacking on many fronts. Reportedly, the APG has found deficiencies in Islamabad’s anti-money laundering and combating terror financing efforts.
Reza Baqir, the governor of Pakistan’s State Bank, is currently heading a 10-member team to represent Pakistan at the APG meeting. So far, Pakistan’s performance has been assessed as ‘poor’.
In the APG, there are around 40 parameters of which Pakistan has failed in over 35. There are 11 effectiveness parameters and Pakistan has failed in 10.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has to show compliance in both, the Mutual evaluation and the FATF action plan. The next plenary session of the FATF to be held in October will take up the final review of Pakistan’s case.
The blacklist is the lowest list of the APG. The APG blacklisting will have be a major blow to Pakistan as its chances of being blacklisted by FATF in October have now increased manifold.
Pakistan was earlier placed under the FATF greylist after severe pressure from the US, France, Germany, and the UK over Pakistan’s failure to curb terror funding. The adverse findings by the APG will keep Islamabad on the negative radar when the deadline for the final review ends in October 2019. A blacklisting by the APG can have a major impact on the final decision of the FATF and may result in an overall blacklisting of Pakistan.
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the Group of 7 (G7) to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
