Can APG's report help Pakistan extricate itself from FATF’s grey list?

SYDNEY/PARIS: As the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gears up to announce its decision to remove or retain Pakistan in its grey list next week, its Australia-based counterpart, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), on Saturday published its report on Islamabad's progress.

The 228-page report titled “Mutual Evaluation Report 2019” would become a basis for the FATF — the international money-laundering and terror-financing watchdog — to finalise its decision in an upcoming meeting in Paris, scheduled for October 13-18, keeping in view Pakistan’s compliance with the parameters it had set earlier.

The APG report states that Pakistan has either fully, largely, or partially complied with 36 of the 40 parameters set by the FATF at the time of the country’s inclusion in the grey list.

Based on the technical compliance ratings, the APG reported that Pakistan has fully complied with one parameter, largely complied with nine parameters, and partially complied with 26 of the 40 parameters.

However, it pointed out that Islamabad missed four of the total 40 parameters that it was to follow in order to be effectively removed from the list.

Did you know FATF dismissed India's baseless reports of blacklisting?

The four parameters that Pakistan missed comprise:

1. DNFBPs (designated non-financial businesses and profession): Customer due diligence;
2. Transparency & BO (beneficial owner/ownership) of legal arrangements;
3. Regulation and supervision of the DNFBPs;
4. Mutual legal assistance: freezing and confiscation

The report highlighted that the country’s performance on international cooperation was moderate.

Nonetheless, it stressed on Pakistan’s weakness in terms of risk, policy and coordination; supervision; preventive measures; legal persons and arrangements; financial intelligence; money-laundering (ML) investigations and prosecution; confiscation; terror-financing (TF) investigations and prosecution; TF preventive measures and financial sanctions; proliferation-financing (PF) financial sanctions.

Last month, a high-level Pakistani delegation led by Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar had attended a two-day meeting with the APG to discuss Islamabad’s progress on the FATF action plan.

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