Pakistan’s ranking on FATF recommendations is getting better with Pakistan’s ranking on 21 of 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) technical recommendations against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Pakistan’s second Monitoring Report (FUR) on Mutual Evaluation released by the APG ( Asia Pacific Group) – a regional FATF affiliate based in Paris – also downgraded the country based on a criterion. The report said Pakistan was re-evaluated to “compatible” status on five counts and another 15 counts to “broadly compliant” and another count to “partially compliant”.
Overall, Pakistan is now completely “in compliance” with seven recommendations and “broadly in compliance” with 24 others. The country is ‘slightly compliant with seven recommendations and ‘non-compliant with two out of a total of 40 recommendations. Altogether, Pakistan now complies or largely complies with 31 of the 40 FATF recommendations.
The APG said Pakistan was re-evaluated to broadly comply with 15 recommendations – 1, 6, 7, 8, 12, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 35 and 40. These include risk assessment and adopting a risk-based approach, targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing, targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation, non-profit organizations, politically exposed persons, and dependence on third parties.
“Overall, Pakistan has made notable progress in addressing technical compliance deficiencies identified in its Mutual Assessment Report (MER) and has been reclassified into 22 recommendations,” added the APG.
Finance Ministry and Energy Minister Hammad Azhar, who is also head of the FATF task force, separately welcomed the reclassification, saying the results proved sincerity along with the government’s determination to comply with the FATF requirements.
“These results are also a manifestation of the irreversibility and sustainability of the entire process of putting Pakistan on a par with global AML/CFT standards,” said the finance ministry, adding that “an update of 21 recommendations in this short period of time remains unprecedented in FATF history”.
“Having considered the nature and scope of the remaining gaps and the risk and context of Pakistan, these gaps were given important weight in determining the final non-compliance rating,” said the APG.
