Pakistan, UAE anti-money laundering MoU to help meet FATF conditions

Pakistan’s envoy in the United Arab Emirates Ghulam Dastagir has said that the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries to curb money laundering and terror financing would help Pakistan meet the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conditions.

“Through this MoU, both countries are now bound through parameters and institutions to share information with each which was not being done formally earlier. This agreement also meets the requirement Pakistan needs to fulfill with regards to the FATF,” Dastgir said, quoted Arab News.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the UAE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Financial Monitoring Unit of Pakistan.

The MoU signed by H.E. Ghulam Dastgir, Ambassador of Pakistan to UAE, and Ali Faisal Ba'Alawi, Acting Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of UAE, comes in line with international efforts to exchange financial information and expertise, as well as collaborate with relevant authorities and stakeholders to combat financial crimes, informed the Central Bank of the UAE in a statement.

It is pertinent to inform that the global anti-money laundering watchdog FATF has kept Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ and has given Pakistan time to meet the remaining 13 out of a total of 27 actions to address ‘strategic deficiencies' relating to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.

The Paris based intergovernmental placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019.