Pakistan eyes removal from FATF grey list as plenary session starts

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Working Group and Plenary meetings will be held in Paris tomorrow, 24NewsHD TV channel reported Saturday.

Pakistan is likely to exit from the FATF grey list in the meeting scheduled from October 16 to 21.  

The decisions of the meeting will be announced on October 21. The decisions will be announced on October 21 at 8 PM Pakistan time. Representatives of the 206-member global network and observer organizations will participate in the meeting while representatives of IMF, World Bank, UN and Financial Intelligence Unit will also participate in the meeting.

This will be the first FATF meeting under the chairmanship of FATF new President Raja Kumar. Pakistan has fully complied with both FATF action plans. Islamabad has implemented 34 points under two different action plans. Pakistan has fulfilled all conditions to stop money laundering, financial support of terrorists, officials said

At the last plenary meeting in March 2022, FATF retained Pakistan in its “grey list” and directed it to do more in investigating and prosecuting senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups for terror financing.

A high-level team of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog FATF team visited Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 during which it held meetings with the relevant authorities and verified steps taken by the country to fulfill conditions to exit the grey list. The delegation reviewed the sustainability of government initiatives and their implementation.

The findings of the FATF delegation would be discussed and reviewed in the meeting.

It is pertinent that Pakistan has been on the grey list of the Paris-based FATF since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing, and was given a plan of