Pakistan gets another extension on FATF Grey List despite failure to act against terror groups

During the 3rd & and the last Plenary and Working Groups Meeting of the Global anti-money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the current FATF plenary year on 24^th June 2020, Pakistan again managed to escape from entering the ‘Blacklist’ despite its continuing failure to act against terrorist organizations. The FATF plenary and Working Groups meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Beijing, China, but due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, it was conducted virtually through video conferencing.

Under the FATF Chairmanship of China, it was certain that Pakistan will be given another extension until the next FATF Plenary and Working Group meeting in October 2020.

Background

Pakistan’s performance in implementing the 27-point action given by FATF during its Plenary Meeting in June 2018 was under review during the June 2020 Plenary meet.  Pakistan has given more than a year for implementing the 27-point action plan, but Islamabad failed to implement 22 out of the 27 action-points, this was informed during the FATF’s plenary meet in October 2019.

In October 2019 meeting, Pakistan was given an extension to implement all the remaining 22 action points by February 2020. In February 2020, Pakistan failed to implement 13 out of the total 27 action-points of the FATF, as a result of which another extension for four months until June 2020 Plenary Meet was granted.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

FATF was founded in 1989 as per the initiative taken by the G& countries for developing global policies that can combat money laundering and financing for terrorism activities. It is headquartered in Paris, France.

FATF plenary year begins in the month of July every year and ends in the month of June next year. Every year a total of 3 Plenary and Working group meetings of the FATF are conducted in the months of October, February, and June.

For the FATF year from 1^st July 2019 to 30^th June 2020, China has the Presidency of FATF. From 1^st July 2020, Germany will take over the Presidency of FATF until 30^th June 2021.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2020