FATF Recommendations For Pakistan Improves On 4 out of 40
The Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) said Pakistan’s ranking in 4 of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 40 technical recommendations on money laundering and terrorist financing (AML / CFT) had improved.
As per the report, the APG said that Pakistan has 35 recommendations, most of which have been followed.
Pakistan will continue to monitor and strengthen the implementation of AML / CFT measures and will continue to report to the APG on the progress made.
As per the third follow-up report (FUR) released by APG on Pakistan’s mutual evaluation, Pakistan fully complies with a total of eight recommendations.
Overall, Pakistan now complies with 35 or more of the FATF’s 40 recommendations.
APG said that Pakistan had made good progress in resolving the technical compliance issues identified in its Mutual Evaluation Report (MER).
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Therefore, Pakistan has made satisfactory progress on a recommendation and a reassessment has been carried out. This reassessment occurred when Pakistan submitted a complete AML / CFT file to the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS).
The establishment of liabilities and institutions providing financial services previously provided by Pakistan Post are subject to AML / CFT liabilities, such as the State Bank of Pakistan and the Pakistan Securities Exchange Commission.
The three embassies that have classified Pakistan as “partially compliant” are also affected by recommendations 18, 26 and 34.
Proposition 18 refers to the selection of employees and employees of financial institutions. This means that Pakistan has also corrected the lack of staffing requirements for banks and FDI, including nine new provisions in the SBP and SECP regulations.
Changes have been made to CDNS and Pakistan Post regulations to comply with applicable AML / CFT requirements, but minor changes remain to be made in the coverage of financial group requirements by SBP regulations.
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In recommendation 26, APG pointed out that there are still gaps in the responsibilities of the financial group and that there are no clear rules for the SBP to respond to RS or financial group risks in response to the progress of its business.
Similarly, at R-34, APG reported that Pakistan had issued detailed guidance with the ER to help implement its commitments and held feedback sessions, most of which were hosted by the BC / FT.
The reporting date for this assessment was February 1, 2021, which means that Islamabad may have come further since then, which will be reviewed at a later date.
In February 2021, Pakistan submitted its third progress report requesting a re-evaluation of R10, 18, 26 and 34.
APG recognized Pakistan’s efforts to improve technical compliance with the four recommendations.
Separately, Hamad Azhar, head of the Treasury and FATF working group, welcomed the reclassification, saying that Pakistan is much better than many other countries in terms of technical compliance.
“Pakistan is now at the top of the list of countries that have received a C / LC rating for 35 out of 40 FATF recommendations,” the Treasury Department said.
Pakistan’s MER was approved in August 2019, and the country received complaints and grievances on 10 out of 40 FATF technical compliance recommendations.
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