FATF likely to vote on Pakistan's exit from grey list tomorrow: sources

PARIS: A session of Financial Action Task Force is underway in Paris to discuss Pakistan’s exit from its grey list and the voting is expected to be held on February 19 (tomorrow), citing sources, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Sources told ARY News that the FATF’s plenary and working group meetings have completed the review of performance report presented by the Pakistani officials, whereas, the task force is likely to hold voting tomorrow.

The institution has expressed satisfaction over the performance report as the country has completed the implementation of all recommendations besides being supported by China, Turkey, Malaysia and other states.

It is noteworthy to mention here that Pakistan needs 15 votes in the upcoming session to be removed from the FATF’s grey list.

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The plenary session and working groups meeting are being attended by more than 800 representatives from 205 countries and jurisdictions around the world including International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), United Nations (UN) in Paris, France.

Six days of meetings will focus on global action to follow the money that fuels crime and terrorism and reduce the harm caused to people and society.

The plenary session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had commenced on February 16 in Paris to assess Pakistan’s performance on the compliance of the 27 points to curb terror financing and money laundering.

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A delegation of Pakistan led by Minister for Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar, is attending the session.

The task force will decide on Pakistan’s exit from its grey list or retaining the country in the list, sources said. Pakistan has already made substantial progress over compliance with the recommendations of the task force.

Previous FATF session in Beijing had affirmed tangible progress made by Pakistan over its recommendations.

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In the last session of the FATF, India had opposed the removal of Pakistan from the grey list, while the United States and the European Union had backed Islamabad’s efforts in line with the FATF guidelines.

Moreover, China, Turkey and Malaysia are already supporting Pakistan, while it is expected that Pakistan can get more support from the member countries due to its positive diplomacy.

Last month, the officials of Pakistan and Financial Action Task Force had continued dialogues in Beijing where the implementation report of Islamabad was reviewed regarding the four-month progress on the FATF action plan.

Analysts expect Pakistan to either exit the grey list soon after winning a “largely-compliant” rating from the FATF or might get more time from the watchdog to ensure full compliance.