Islamabad: The Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has rated Pakistan’s level of effectiveness as ‘low’ on 10 out of 11 international goals on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terror (AML/CFT), a move that may hit the South Asian nation.
The Sydney-based regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released an update, as of Sept 2, on the rating of its regional members suggesting that Pakistan had a ‘moderate level of effectiveness’ on only one out of 11 outcomes, Dawn News reported.
Under this ‘immediate outcome’, Pakistan extends international cooperation on appropriate information, financial intelligence, and evidence, and facilitates action against criminals and their assets.
A 15-member joint delegation of FATF and APG paid an onsite visit to Pakistan from Aug 29 to Sept 2 to verify the country’s compliance with a 34-point action plan committed with FATF at the highest level in June 2018.
The task force had found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all the 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country’s exit from the grey list.
Under the FATF-APG assessment mechanism, effective ratings on “Immediate Outcomes” reflect the extent to which a country’s measures are effective.
The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that an effective AML/CFT system should achieve.
