Only two countries, North Korea and Iran, are on the FATF blacklist, which severely crimps their access to the global financial system and international aid
New Delhi: On Friday International terror financing watchdog FATF retained Pakistan on the Grey List and warned the country of action for its failure in combating money laundering and terror financing, officials said.
The decision was taken after a five-day plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which was held in Paris.
The FATF has given Pakistan till February 2020 to put its house in order or warned that it would be blacklisted.
The FATF has noted that Pakistan addressed only five out of the 27 tasks given to it in controlling funding to terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, responsible for series of attacks in India.
“Once again it was decided by consensus that FATF would retain Pakistan on the Grey List and warn Pakistan that if it did not complete its full Action Plan and show significant and sustainable progress or else action will be taken,” said an official.
The FATF plenary said in a statement said “Strongly urge Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020, otherwise should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by next Plenary, the FATF will take action, including urging members to advise their financial institutions to give special attention to business relations and transactions with Pakistan,”.
If Pakistan continues with the ‘Grey List’ or is put in the ‘Dark Grey’ list, it would be very difficult for them to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the European Union, making its financial condition more precarious.
The moment when a nation gets Black Listed, immediately economic sanctions, and punishment – borrowing will become difficult, non-banking financial institutions will come under financial scrutiny and bailouts and IMF packages will become harder to access. Only two countries, North Korea and Iran, are on the FATF blacklist, which severely crimps their access to the global financial system and international aid.
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