Final Decision on Pakistan’s FATF Fate in October as Team Completes Onsite Visit 

A 15-member team of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently completed its onsite visit to Pakistan, with the final decision on the country’s grey list status now expected at the global money-laundering watchdog’s next meeting set to take place in Paris in October.

According to sources, the FATF team stayed in Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 for the verification of measures against money laundering and terror financing. The findings of the team will now be reviewed at the FATF meeting next month.

According to sources, the Pakistani officials are confident that the visiting team was satisfied with the country’s implementation of its two action plans.

In its combined seventh and eighth reviews of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also noted that Pakistani authorities have demonstrated a high level of commitment to working closely with the Financial Action Task Force and the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering.

The report said that Pakistan has successfully completed all action items in its 2018 Action Plan, including the last item on terrorist financing investigations and prosecutions of senior leaders of UN-designated terrorist groups (Immediate Outcome 9) in June 2022 paving the way for the country’s exit from the FATF list of jurisdictions with serious deficiencies.

It further noted that authorities have also completed all 7 action items in its 2021 AML/CFT Action Plan, ahead of the committed deadlines.

During its June meeting, the FATF had said that Pakistan has substantially completed its two action plans but onsite visits are required to verify the implementation.

“FATF made the initial determination that Pakistan has substantially completed its two action plans, covering 34 items, and warrants an onsite visit to verify that the implementation of Pakistan’s AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future,” the watchdog said in a statement.

Pakistan was officially placed on the FATF grey list for the third time on June 28, 2018, and it has been taking measures for its exclusion since.

Pakistan was first placed on the FATF grey list after it failed to meet the international anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) standards in 2008. In 2010 Pakistan made its exit from the list after improving its AML/CFT regime. However, Pakistan was again placed on the grey list in 2012 and remained on the list till 2015.



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