Flurry of activity at FIA ahead of FATF team visit

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has reactivated the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing for Terrorism Directorate (AML&CFT), as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) team is likely to arrive in Pakistan in August this year.

The AML&CTF circles have also been established across the country including Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad, well-placed sources in the FIA said, adding that the AML Directorate Circles will collect data on the successful anti-money laundering operations.

The FIA will collect data from all anti-money laundering agencies and share it with its headquarters. The sources said the FIA as the lead agency will brief the FATF team based on the data collected.

The team will present its report and recommendations in the FATF meeting after this briefing. Jurisdictions under increased monitoring are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within the agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. This list is often externally referred to as the “grey list”.

The FATF and FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs) continue to work with the jurisdictions below as they report on the progress achieved in addressing their strategic deficiencies. The FATF calls on these jurisdictions to complete their action plans expeditiously and within the agreed timeframes.

The FATF welcomes their commitment and will closely monitor their progress. The FATF does not call for application of enhanced due diligence measures to be applied to these jurisdictions, but encourages its members and all jurisdictions to take into account the information presented below in their risk analysis.

The FATF identifies additional jurisdictions, on an ongoing basis, that have strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. A number of jurisdictions have not yet been reviewed by the FATF or their FSRBs, but will be in due course.

Pakistan’s Anti-Money Laundering Act now includes obligations that apply to Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs). This includes lawyers and law firms, notaries, other legal professionals, accountants and accounting firms, when they provide certain services to clients, real estate agents including brokers and dealers, builders and developers, housing authorities, as well as dealers in precious metals and stones including jewellers when conducting cash transactions over 2 million rupees. The accounting and legal sectors are also subject to AML/CFT, rules when they provide trust and company services for clients.