Pakistan fares badly in terror financing report; Complies with 1 of 40 FATF terms

Islamabad: Pakistan faces high risks of money laundering and terror financing and has complied with just one the 40 recommendations set by the Financial Action Task Force at the time of the country’s inclusion in its grey list, according to a report by the Asia Pacific Group (APG).

The APG released its much-awaited 228-page ‘Mutual Evaluation Report’ on Saturday, ten days ahead of the key Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) plenary meeting which will give its decision on Pakistan’s ‘grey list’ status.

Pakistan was placed on the grey list in June last year and given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019 or face the risk of being placed on the black list with Iran and North Korea.

The cut-off date for Pakistan to show improvement to APG was October 2018 and the Pakistani authorities insisted that they made a lot of progress during the past year.

According to the report, out of FATF’s 40 recommendations on curbing money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, Pakistan was fully compliant only on one. It was largely compliant on nine, partially compliant on 26 and non-compliant on four recommendations, The Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan faces high risks of money laundering and terror financing and it needs to improve the understanding of these risks that are also animating from various terrorist groups operating in the country, the report said.

“After the APG report, chances are high that Pakistan would be retained on the grey list during the FATF plenary meetings from October 13 to 18 in Paris,” according to the APG report.