FATF to mull over Pakistan's exit from 'Grey List' in Paris today

PARIS: A five-day plenary session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will begin on Sunday (today) in Paris, to assess Pakistan’s performance on the compliance of the 27 points to curb terror financing and money laundering would be reviewed, ARY News reported.

A delegation of Pakistan led by Minister for Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar, has been in Paris to attend the session of the FATF.

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.

The forum was founded in 1989 to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

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.

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.