No, Pakistan has not been added to any 'enhanced black list' by FATF's Asia Pacific Group

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) which held its annual meeting in Australia, will present its report on Pakistan in October after post-plenary quality and consistency review, contrary to India reports that the anti-money laundering has placed Pakistan in its 'enhanced black list'.

On Friday, Indian media reports claimed that APG has placed Pakistan in the enhanced expedited follow up list, which India claims is a 'black list'. However, the APG has no 'black list' and its enhanced expedited list means more reporting and follow-up.

Misleading reports on Indian media cited unnamed "official sources" whereas no official statement on the matter has been given by the APG yet. All reports were taken from Indian news agency Press Trust of India and without verification published on mainstream Indian news outlets.

This is worrisome for Pakistan because such rankings will worsen its chances of getting loans from international credit agencies or even attract foreign investments.https://t.co/XCy13Bv2NY

— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 23, 2019

In a statement, Ministry of Finance has clarified that media reports being circulated about Pakistan being blacklisted is 'incorrect and baseless'.

Ministry of Finance - Press Release pic.twitter.com/pY0fArqowk

— PTV News (@PTVNewsOfficial) August 23, 2019

The FATF also issued a statement stating that the decision to make modifications to any jurisdictions lies with the FATF that meets in October, according to a Bloomberg journalist.

JUST IN: The decision to make modifications to any jurisdictions lies with the FATF that meets in October, says Financial Action Task Force

— Faseeh Mangi (@FaseehMangi) August 23, 2019

In a case similar to Pakistan, last year, APG which has no 'black list' had decided that Cambodia will remain on its 'enhanced expedited follow-up' and will continue to report back to APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of (AML/CFT) measures, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) reported.

According to a statement by APG, during its meeting Pakistan, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines and Solomon Islands submitted their reports. These reports were analysed and discussed in detail for two full days and will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review by FATF prior to publication. Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019.

Earlier in the week, Pakistan delegation, headed by Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir, reached Australia and commenced negotiations with the APG to exit its grey list. The delegation also presented its 21-page report before the group regarding the measures which have been taken to prevent money laundering, terror financing and other recommendations. The group adopted Pakistan’s third Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) that covered the period between February and October 2018.

In 2018, Pakistan was placed in FATF's grey list for due to weak financial regulation regime. Since then, Pakistan has been directly scrutinized by the FATF until it is satisfied by the measures taken to curb terror financing and money laundering.