The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to keep Pakistan on the “greylist” till the next review of its compliance to the recommendations in February next year

LEARNING  FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in July 1989 by a Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in Paris, initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. 

In October 2001, the FATF expanded its mandate to incorporate efforts to combat terrorist financing, in addition to money laundering.  In April 2012, it added efforts to counter the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), inter-governmental body ,is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog; It sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society. As a policy-making body, the FATF works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.

With more than 200 countries and jurisdictions committed to implementing them.  The FATF has developed the FATF Recommendations, or FATF Standards, which ensure a co-ordinated global response to prevent organised crime, corruption and terrorism. They help authorities go after the money of criminals dealing in illegal drugs, human trafficking and other crimes.  The FATF monitors countries to ensure they implement the FATF Standards fully and effectively, and holds countries to account that do not comply.

Dr. Marcus Pleyer of Germany assumed the position of President of the FATF on 1 July 2020. The FATF Secretariat is located at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

In addition to FATF’s “Forty plus Nine” Recommendations, in 2000 FATF issued a list of “Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories” (NCCTs), commonly called the FATF Blacklist. This was a list of 15 jurisdictions that, for one reason or another, FATF members believed were uncooperative with other jurisdictions in international efforts against money laundering (and, later, terrorism financing). Typically, this lack of cooperation manifested itself as an unwillingness or inability (frequently, a legal inability) to provide foreign law enforcement officials with information relating to bank account and brokerage records, and customer identification and beneficial owner information relating to such bank and brokerage accounts, shell company, and other financial vehicles commonly used in money laundering. Countries are added and withdrawn from the blacklist as their AML and CFT regulatory regimes are adjusted to meet the relevant FATF standards. The current FATF blacklist includes two countries: North Korea and Iran. 

The FATF “greylist” refers to countries that are “monitored jurisdictions”; countries on the FATF grey list represent a much higher risk of money laundering and terrorism financing but have formally committed to working with the FATF to develop action plans that will address their AML/CFT deficiencies. The current FATF grey list, issued on 21 February 2020, includes the following countries: Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.