'FATF satisfied over Pakistan's efforts to curb money laundering, terror financing'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s efforts to combat money laundering and terror financing, to have an extent satisfied the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), according to sources.

The FATF session has also pointed out certain areas for betterment before May this year to get out of the grey list.

Pakistan’s delegation headed by Finance Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan is currently attending a three-day conference of the FATF in Sydney. The delegation includes officials of the Financial Monitoring Unit, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

The Paris-based global watchdog on anti-money laundering and terror financing has reviewed most of the 10-point action plan as some relatively insignificant areas were left for review on Thursday after which the FATF will give its final opinion on the matter, sources said.

The anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing body has mostly expressed its satisfaction over the steps taken by Pakistan, the sources further said.

It will provide time to Pakistani officials to work on the remaining demands of the FATF.

According to sources, a broader review of the compliance with international commitments will be held at another meeting in May. That meeting would decide about Pakistan being removed from the grey list of the FATF or not.

The international body had gone through the report sent by Pakistan last week before the review meeting.

The task force team appeared to be convinced over the measures taken by Pakistani authorities to combat terror financing and money laundering as per the resolutions of the United Nations.