Engagement with FATF led to improvements in laws and procedures, says Pakistan after removal from grey list

Pakistan has formally responded to the FATF's decision to remove it from its grey list, saying the country's engagement with the global watchdog has led to strategic improvements in its laws and procedures and made its domestic anti-terror financing and money laundering regime more resilient.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, on Friday removed Pakistan from a list of countries under “increased monitoring”, also known as the “grey list”.

Responding to the development, the Foreign Office (FO) said last night that the FATF decided by consensus that Pakistan has completed all substantial, technical and procedural requirements of both the 2018 and 2021 action plans and as a result, Pakistan has been taken off the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, with immediate effect.

“Pakistan has made enormous progress in the Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) domain over the course of fulfilling requirements of both action plans,” it said.

“Despite many challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic, Pakistan continued the reform trajectory and sustained the high-level political commitment of aligning its domestic AML/CFT regime with international best practices.”

The FO said that achieving FATF targets was a whole-of-nation endeavor, as multiple ministries, departments and agencies - both at the federal and provincial levels - contributed to achieving this national objective.

“The engagement with the FATF has led to strategic improvements in Pakistan’s laws and procedures, making its domestic AML/CFT regime more resilient to cope with current and future challenges,” it said.

Pakistan also thanked the FATF members and the international community for providing valuable support during the action plan period and reiterated to continue building on this mutually beneficial cooperation to sustain the gains.

“Pakistan also looks forward to sharing its expertise, knowledge and experience with other countries to enhance the effectiveness of the FATF standards at the global level,” according to the FO.

FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and handed it over a plan of action to fulfill as a condition to come out of the list. As the country struggled to fulfill its obligations, another action place was given in June 2021.

FATF had given Pakistan first a 27-point action plan and later another 7-point plan to comply and it fulfilled all 34 points.

Finally, after many reviews the country succeeded to earn the approval of the FATF which at the end of its plenary session in Paris announced that Islamabad was being removed from the grey list but asked Pakistan to continue working with FATF to further improve its system.

It said in a statement that it welcomes Pakistan’s significant progress in improving its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regime as it has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments of its action plans.

“Pakistan is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process,” according to the statement.