FATF’s regional body retains Pakistan on enhanced follow-up list

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, a regional affiliate of Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has retained Pakistan on "enhanced follow-up" status for sufficient outstanding requirements, while improving the country's rating on 21 of the 40 technical recommendations of the global watchdog against money laundering and terror financing.The second Follow-Up Report (FUR) on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by the APG also downgraded the country on one criterion. The report said Pakistan was re-rated to compliant' status on five counts and on 15 others to largely compliant' and on yet another count to partially compliant'.

Pakistan's daily Dawn reported that overall, Pakistan is now fully compliant' with seven recommendations and largely compliant' with 24 others. The country is partially compliant' with seven recommendations and non-compliant' with two out of a total 40 recommendations.  Pakistan is now compliant or largely compliant with 31 out of 40 FATF recommendations. Pakistan submitted its third progress report in February 2021 which is yet to be evaluated. “Overall, Pakistan has made notable progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in its Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) and has been re-rated on 22 recommendations,” the APG added. Pakistan was put on the grey list by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018 and the country has been struggling to come out of it.

Global terror financing watchdog, FATF, in February this year, had retained Pakistan on its "grey list" till June after concluding that Islamabad failed to address its strategically important deficiencies, to fully implement the 27-point action plan that the watchdog had drawn up for Pakistan. Pakistan's continuation on the 'grey list' means that it will not get any respite in trying to access finances in the form of investments and aid from international bodies including International Monetary Fund (IMF).