Asia-Pacific Group decides to keep Pakistan on enhanced follow-up list

ISLAMABAD: The Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has retained Pakistan on its “Enhanced Follow-Up” list, due to the limited progress on the technical recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) pertaining to terror financing.

The first Follow-Up Report (FUR) released by the Asia-Pacific Group - a regional affiliate of the FATF - showed that while Pakistan was improving its full compliance on two (out of 40) recommendations pertaining to combating terror financing and money laundering, progress largely remains unchanged across the board; with non-compliance on four counts, partial compliance on 25 counts, and largely compliant on nine counts.

The report added that “Pakistan will remain in enhanced (expedited) follow up, and will continue to report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures”, stating that overall Pakistan has made robust progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies on 27 action points, including legislation in 15 areas.

In addition, the report mentioned that Pakistan had taken a number of steps to comprehensively identify and address terror financing risks, through conducting a Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment, especially pertaining to cash smuggling. Authorities in Pakistan have also identified 12 terrorist organizations, including eight U.N designated “Entities of Concern” for threat profiles, in terms of the influx of funds to support illicit activities.