Pakistan likely to exit FATF grey list after 4 years

Pakistan is expected to leave the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list on October 21 after topping the dreaded chart for over four years.

According to Dawn, a 15-member team of the money-laundering watchdog concluded its onsite visit to Pakistan on September 2, with the final decision on the country’s grey list status now expected at its next meeting set to take place in Paris this week.

According to an official statement, panellists from 206 Global Network members and observer organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol, and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will attend the Working Group and Plenary meetings in Paris.

The outcome of the two-day deliberations on Pakistan’s status would be announced. The FATF Onsite team’s report on Pakistan is scheduled to be reviewed at the plenary meetings.

Pakistani authorities believe that after four years of hard effort, the country has achieved not just a high level of technical compliance with FATF standards, but also a high degree of efficacy through the implementation of two comprehensive FATF action plans.

It is worth noting that the FATF found Pakistan generally compliant on all 34 issues in June of this year and opted to send an onsite team to verify it on the ground before formally declaring the country’s removal from the grey list in August and September.

Pakistan was rated “compliant or generally compliant” with FATF criteria in 38 of 40 recommendations, putting the country among the top FATF-compliant countries in the world.

Pakistan was officially placed on the FATF grey list for the third time on June 28, 2018, and has been working to remove itself off the list ever since.

The country was originally placed on the FATF grey list in 2008 after failing to meet international anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) requirements. Pakistan was removed from the list in 2010 after upgrading its AML/CFT regime. However, Pakistan was placed on the grey list again in 2012 and remained there until 2015.