Pakistan to stay on FATF's greylist

Pakistan is certain to stay on the greylist when the next meet of Financial Action Task Force or FATF, an official from FATF member countries told WION on Wednesday. 

The grouping, which looks into money laundering and terrorism financing meets from 16th to 21st June in Orlando, Florida. 

During the meet, it will be discussing Pakistan's listing and if the country has taken any action to combat terror financing. 

FATF's Asia-Pacific Group (APG) which met in China in mid may wasn't impressed by Pakistan's action on terror financing.

Islamabad was put on the greylisted last year which means the country comes under financial jurisdiction with “structural deficiencies” in anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) or simply-- supports the financing of terror.

In June 2018, Pakistan had made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and Asia Pacific group to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter- terrorist financing-related deficiencies. 

Being in FATF’s grey list has caused a loss of $10 billion to Islamabad and if Islamabad fails to take any concrete action on terror, it might be put on the blacklist.

The FATF in its February meet had come hard on Pakistan saying it has not demonstrated a proper understanding of the Terror Financing risks posed by "Da’esh, AQ, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN, and persons affiliated with the Taliban. "

The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had come hard on Pakistan on for not doing enough on terror financing. The president of the anti-terror financing group, Marshall Billingslea has said that the multilateral group will hold Islamabad accountable if the country does not fulfil its commitments. 

Replying to WION's question, is Pakistan serious on acting on terror, in briefing post the week-long FATF plenary, Billingslea had said, "I have engaged in my capacity as the President of FATF. I believe when they issue high-level commitment then they well understand what they were committing too. As I have said we will hold them to it and we expect time table to be met and action plan to be fully implemented in line with FATF standards".

A high-level delegation from the govt of Pakistan had attended the FATF plenary.

Pakistan was greylisted last year which means the country comes under financial jurisdiction with “structural deficiencies” in anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) or simply put-- supports financing of terror.

FATF asked Pakistan to implement the 10 point action plan given by the country itself to address the "strategic deficiencies" on terror financing. It said in a release, "Given the limited progress on action plan items due in January 2019, the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019."