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Finance ministry rejects Indian media reports of FATF blacklisting Pakistan [Post#7]

Kaptan

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Pakistan has been put in an "enhanced blacklist" by global financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force's Asia-Pacific division for its failure to meet global standards, officials said on Friday. Islamabad now needs to focus on avoiding the blacklist in October, when the 15-month timeline ends on the FATF's 27-point action plan.
The Financial Action Task Force's Asia-Pacific group has also found Pakistan non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters on money-laundering and terror financing.

On 11 parameters of terror-funding and money-laundering, Pakistan was adjudged as low on 10. Despite its efforts, Pakistan's 10-member delegation led by its central bank chief could not convince the 41-member plenary to upgrade it on any parameter.

n June this year, the watchdog had issued a strong warning to Pakistan to curb terror financing by October or face consequences. It had said that the country could be blacklisted unless it fulfills an "action plan" against UN-designated terrorists operating on its soil by October, highly placed sources in the Indian diplomatic team had said.

India has, in the past, urged the FATF to put Pakistan on a blacklist of countries that fail to meet international standards in stopping terror funding following the listing of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the United Nations.

Since June 2018, Pakistan has been on the "grey list" of countries whose domestic laws are considered weak to tackle the challenges of money laundering and terrorism financing.

India and other member countries of the FATF have charged Pakistan with failing to take concrete action against Hafiz Saeed, Maula Masood Azhar and other UN-designated terrorists, pointing out that its anti-terror law still remains out of sync with standards set by the international body.

Several FATF members have also raised the issue of no cases being registered against Hafiz Saeed and Azhar Masood. Although Pakistan contends that it has done enough by seizing over 700 properties belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Daawa, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, India and other FATF members have pointed out that seizures do not necessarily indicate compliance.

If Pakistan continues to remain in the "grey list", it would risk being downgraded by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, besides facing negative assessments by credit rating agencies such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

This will add to the financial burden of Pakistan, which is seeking aid from all possible international avenues to overcome a slump in economy.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pakistan-put-in-enhanced-blacklist-by-terror-watchdog-fatfs-asia-pacific-group-report-2089242
 
Will have to track this thread for fake or misleading news. This is only being reported in Indian media.
 
Hopefully this is false news

PTI goverment, Army and pml n goverment need to held accountable if we are on blacklist. It will be a huge failure
 
Who cares.

Both countries are just talk and want to win PR brownie points - tell me when something happens on the ground.
 
The Ministry of Finance has rejected Indian media reports about Pakistan being blacklisted by the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) — the regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The ministry said the reports were "incorrect and baseless". They added that a press release would be issued shortly.

Indian media on Friday reported that Pakistan had been placed on the blacklist; however, no source has been mentioned by the outlets.


Gulf News quoting IANS reported that Pakistan had been placed on the 'Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Blacklist" for "its failure to meet its standards".

According to a statement issued by the APG today, the body's annual meeting and annual technical assistance forum were held this week from August 18 till August 23. The APG members adopted six significant mutual evaluation reports (MER) for Pakistan, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, the Phillippines and the Solomon Islands.

The statement, however, did not mention Pakistan or any other country's placement on the blacklist.

The statement added that reports were analysed and discussed for two days and would be subject to a post-plenary quality and consistency review before being published in early October.

"The APG also adopted a number of follow-up reports for APG members and for joint APG/FATF members and also agreed on revised evaluation procedures for the coming year reflecting recent changes to global procedures."

Additionally, the APG members adopted a CFT Operational Plan as part of a global strategy to address the concerns related to terrorist financing.

"As part of this plan, the plenary agreed to undertake a typologies and implementation project examining the financing and facilitation of foreign fighters and returnees."

Two typology reports were also discussed and adopted.

The Ministry of Finance on Wednesday said the APG meeting on money laundering adopted Pakistan’s third MER on strengthening of anti-money laundering and countering financing terrorism (AML/CFT) safeguards that covered the period between February and October 2018. A senior-level delegation from Pakistan led by State Bank Governor Dr Reza Baqir attended the meeting.

The ministry said the third MER adopted by the APG meeting identified a number of areas where further actions were required to strengthen the AML/CFT framework. The report does not cover the areas in which Pakistan has made substantial progress since October 2018.

An official had explained that this primarily meant the APG had carried out an assessment of Pakistan’s AML/CFT regime and developed an opinion on where Pakistan stood with reference to FATF standards in October 2018. Importantly, the progress that Pakistan made since October 2018 had not been considered in this report due to APG rules based on almost 40 special standards and benchmarks for determining a country’s ranking on money laundering and eight special recommendations on terror financing.

Therefore, the APG assessment of Pakistan’s third MER may not truly reflect Pakistan’s existing ground realities that will be reviewed in the September 5 meeting to be held in Bangkok and then finally in Paris on October18-23 to determine if Islamabad has delivered on its 27-point action plan committed to the FATF to exit the grey list.

The Pakistan delegation had started bilateral meetings with key APG members until the end of current meetings on August 23 (today) to brief them on recent progress by Pakistan in implementing the FATF action plan. Earlier, an official told Dawn that the APG and many of its members were appreciative of the legislation being made, rules being improved and actions taken against banned outfits and revision in risk assessments of all corporate and non-corporate manuals, entities and outfits.

Pakistan is a member of the APG since 2000. APG is a regional body of Paris-based FATF of the United Nations and requires its members to undergo mutual evaluation on the compliance of its AML/CFT framework with FATF recommendations.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1501207/f...n-media-reports-of-fatf-blacklisting-pakistan
 
No mention of Pakistan - sad state of affairs for India media and also for some of our Indian supporters.

ECo0vf4U0AIIDxg
 
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Firstly the AP division does not make the ultimate call, while the reports seem to have credence it is not 100% certain that Pakistan will be blacklisted. AP division's advice might be taken into consideration, so that is a battle lost but the war is still ongoing.

The biggest benefit Pakistan has is that the annual rolling presidency sits with China from the 1st of July. A blacklisted Pakistan will hurt Chinese investments so they will do everything in their power to prevent this. More importantly it can have serious implications on the IMF handouts and the Pakistan economy, this is something China will try and prevent.

So 99.99% sure that Pakistan will not be blacklisted irrespective of what Indian propaganda states.
 
It pains me that our media is so rotten and can't get even a single fact right. What a load of garbage!
 
Published by IANS.

So far, only Indian newspapers have said that Pakistan has been blacklisted by FATF. We’ll have to wait for a while it seems. Hopefully Pakistan hasn’t been put in the blacklist.

Fm has denied it so obviously it's incorrect.
 
A spokesperson of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has dismissed reports of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) blacklisting Pakistan.

Speaking to Geo News, spokesperson Alexandra Wijmenga clarified that only the FATF had the authority to blacklist, not its regional affiliate APG.

According to the spokesperson, the FATF will hold its meeting on October 14-18 in Paris and decisions which are taken would be published.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance rejected reports in the Indian media that Pakistan had been blacklisted by the APG.

“Media reports circulating about Pakistan being blacklisted by APG is incorrect and baseless,” a press release from the ministry said.

“[APG] has put Pakistan in its enhanced follow-up as per APG’s Third Round Mutual Evaluation Procedures. In line with APG’s Third Round Mutual Evaluation Procedures, Pakistan would be required to submit follow-up progress reports to APG on quarterly basis,” it added.

The APG in its meeting during the week of 18-23 August adopted Pakistan’s third mutual evaluation report.

A statement by the APG read, “during the week, APG members adopted six significant mutual reports. The reports – for China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the Philippines and Solomon Islands – were analysed and discussed in detail over two full days and will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review prior to publication. Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019.”

https://www.geo.tv/latest/245615-fa...s-of-asia-pacific-group-blacklisting-pakistan
 
They're monitoring it we know that already nothing about blacklisting mate.

"Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019, it added"

Thanks. Lots of misleading news on the internet, had to double-check.
 
The fact there is even talk about Pakistan earning their stripes in the FATF blacklist is terrible... I personally hope Pakistan is not blacklisted, I dont know how Pakistan will come out of all this mess, Pakistan just seems like a lost cause.....
 
The fact there is even talk about Pakistan earning their stripes in the FATF blacklist is terrible... I personally hope Pakistan is not blacklisted, I dont know how Pakistan will come out of all this mess, Pakistan just seems like a lost cause.....

:yk Save your crocodile tears. The talk is from you fellow Indians who've provided no source, what an absolute shambles your media is.

This is obviously 2nd rate propoganda courtesy of the Indian government hoping to misdirect the Pakistani public, it's not gonna work otherwise there would've been a source. You're run by clowns who thought demonitization would've been a success, I'm sorry, but you've not got the people in power who can defeat us.
 
Being reported on Dawn, Gulf news and various other Pakistani newspapers as well.

Can’t believe the government is embarrassing itself by denying this. Pathetic from these guys really.
 
Being reported on Dawn, Gulf news and various other Pakistani newspapers as well.

Can’t believe the government is embarrassing itself by denying this. Pathetic from these guys really.

What has DAWN written? I didn’t find any article where it says that Pakistan has been blacklisted.
 
The fact there is even talk about Pakistan earning their stripes in the FATF blacklist is terrible... I personally hope Pakistan is not blacklisted, I dont know how Pakistan will come out of all this mess, Pakistan just seems like a lost cause.....

Don't need your fake sympathy. We're not gonna get blacklisted. Lol
 
Being reported on Dawn, Gulf news and various other Pakistani newspapers as well.

Can’t believe the government is embarrassing itself by denying this. Pathetic from these guys really.

It's either that you misunderstood what they wrote or you're a patwari.
 
ISLAMABAD: The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering has placed Pakistan on its enhanced monitoring list after Islamabad’s performance was found unsatisfactory on three-fourth of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations.

In its Mutual Evaluation Report, the FATF style regional body observed that the effectiveness of Pakistan’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes were of low level.

The APG prepared the Mutual Evaluation Report after two visits to Pakistan during which they exchanged at least four technical annexures with Islamabad – the body provided government ample opportunities to improve the situation.
Pakistan’s Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) played an effective role as coordinating agency to highlight areas for improvement on which authorities were required-to focus and address the issues.

Islamabad now has six months to show progress as the first enhanced monitoring report will be submitted in February next year to APG. APG findings will be presented in the FATF Plenary. Pakistan’s “enhanced monitoring”, on the other hand, begins immediately.

Enhanced Expedited Follow up List

Under the list, Pakistan would be required to submit report to APG on February 1, 2020. The report will show improvements in the technical compliance, a top Pakistani official who attended the APG meetings confirmed to The Express Tribune.

The official dismissed Indian media reports that Pakistan was blacklisted by the APG.

“Media reports being circulated about Pakistan being blacklisted by APG are incorrect and baseless”, stated Ministry of Finance in a brief statement on Friday, which will follow a detailed press release.

Pakistan is now required to submit its performance report to the APG twice a year.

The sources said that out of 40 universal recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan’s rating was partially and non-compliant on 30 recommendations and performance was also below par on 10 as against 11 Immediate Outcomes.

Out of total 11 Immediate Outcomes -which determine the effectiveness of the AML and CFT frameworks, only on one indicator was effectiveness was found moderately effective and on rest of 10, the rating was ineffective.

On Wednesday, APG on Money Laundering adopted Pakistan’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) during a meeting held in Canberra, Australia. “The MER covers the period from February to October 2018 and identifies a number of areas where further actions are required to strengthen the AML/CFT framework.

But the Ministry of Finance officials believed that Pakistan has addressed some of the weaknesses during the past 10 months that will be reflected in February 2020’s report. It was Pakistan’s second Mutual Evaluation in the past five years and third in the past ten years. Yet many of the sectors and areas that were found non-compliant remained unaddressed during the past ten years.

The sources said that Pakistan had anticipated the adverse outcomes of the APG and prepared an internal action plan of around 150 points. The country wanted to implement the plan in two years but it seems that the task has to be completed in one year.

In case it fails to improve the situation even after falling in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up list, the chances of an adverse decision by FATF will multiply.

A handout issued by the APG after the meeting noted that during the week, APG members adopted six significant mutual evaluation reports. The reports – for China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands – were analysed and discussed in detail over two full days and will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review prior to publication. Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019.

The FATF has already grey-listed Pakistan with effect from June 2018 and adverse findings by the APG would keep Islamabad on the radar of the global and regional bodies working to curb money laundering and terrorism financing.

The FATF Plenary will be held in October where the implementation on an ongoing 27-point Action Plan and adverse APG findings will be reviewed.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2040367/2-apg-places-pakistan-enhanced-monitoring-list-least-one-year/
 
Too much space is given to Indians to spread their fake news.
 
The fact there is even talk about Pakistan earning their stripes in the FATF blacklist is terrible... I personally hope Pakistan is not blacklisted, I dont know how Pakistan will come out of all this mess, Pakistan just seems like a lost cause.....

Spare us the crocodile tears and mind your own business. Last I read India was suffering massive unemployment and a slowing economy. Heck your auto sector is experiencing negative double digits in sales in the past couple of months and there have been reports of thousands of layoffs.
 
"Enhanced Expedited Follow Up list"

never heard of this Bullcrap, whats is this ? we have been grey list twice. can some indian tell me what crap is this ? or you just want to divert the attention on pakistan for no reason ?
 
319279763987938649346 reason not ever believe anything coming out of Indian media.
 
The Indian source was fake news but we should be more concerned about being placed under an enhanced monitoring list. This is actually very worrying.
 
People who make threads on pakpassion based on fake news should have their accounts banned.
 
The fact there is even talk about Pakistan earning their stripes in the FATF blacklist is terrible... I personally hope Pakistan is not blacklisted, I dont know how Pakistan will come out of all this mess, Pakistan just seems like a lost cause.....

Lol, this just sounds so manipulative. First Indians spread fake news, then discuss and celebrate amongst themselves, and now that it's bad there's even talk about it.
 
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has set up a high-powered 12-member National Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Coordination Committee to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till Dec 1.

Led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar, the committee comprises federal secretaries of finance, foreign affairs and interior besides heads of all the institutions and regulators concerned with money laundering and terror financing. They include the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), member (customs) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and DG of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU). The committee also has three senior officials from the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ).

“The committee is mandated to steer the national effort on FATF,” said a notification issued by the Prime Minister Office.

Led by economic affairs minister, coordination committee comprises three secretaries, heads of some institutions and three officials from GHQ

Before the establishment of the committee, the federal finance minister or the PM’s adviser on finance, as the case may be, and the secretary of finance used to lead all activities relating to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) to meet targets set by the FATF and its regional affiliate Asia-Pacific Group (AGP) under a comprehensive action plan to move out of the grey list of the global watchdog on financial crimes.

Pakistan is currently being monitored at three different but interlinked levels — APG, the United States and the FATF — that would determine the country’s possible exit from the FATF grey list. Given significant progress on its 10-point action plan on 27 different standards, authorities expect to secure a couple of months of grace period to be fully compliant when the country comes under final review of the FATF by mid-October.

Last week, the National Counter Terrorism Authority declared two more outfits — Hizbul Ahrar and Balochistan Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS) — as proscribed organisations under Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act, putting their members and activities under surveillance. Seventy-one organisations are already on the list.

Last week, the APG on Money Laundering downgraded Pakistan to “enhanced follow-up” category over technical deficiencies to meet normal international financial standards by October 2018. This meant that the country would now be required to submit quarterly progress reports, instead of biannual, to the APG, starting from February 1, 2020, to show improvements in its technical standards on AML/CFT.

The APG has 40 recommendations on AML standards and another eight on CFT. Importantly, the progress Pakistan made since October 2018 has not been considered in this report due to APG rules based on almost 40 special standards and benchmarks for ranking on money laundering and eight special recommendations on terror financing

This is despite the fact that the authorities claim that Pakistan has made significant progress on FATF standards and action plans, but due to APG’s odd methodology it did not consider Islamabad’s achievements after October 2018. They said the strengthening AML/CFT laws were significant development to merit removal from the grey list, but these have to be formally passed by the parliament and signed into law by the president. These bills were recently cleared by the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance and revenue.

Pakistan has engaged technical assistance providers as consultants in key institutions like the FBR, SECP, FMU and SBP with the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to complete the action plan and further strengthen the effectiveness of the AML/CFT regime.

The amendments to foreign exchange regulation laws (FERA) to restrict domestic movement of currency beyond a certain limit had also been cleared by the National Assembly’s standing committee to help relevant agencies curb the practice of Hawala/Hundi and other forms of illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Amendments to the FERA law through its section 23 enhance punishments, make it a cognizable offence and grant powers to the FIA to take prompt action against illegal foreign exchange operators. The AML crimes are now punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment and Rs5 million fine. The amendments reduce administrative process to cooperate with financial intelligence units of other countries and prompt generation of suspicious transaction reports.

The law enforcement agencies have taken actions in recent months against proscribed organisations such as the Haqqani Network, Jamaatud Dawa and other banned outfits to demonstrate to the international community that the new leadership is committed to taking whatever steps are needed to meet its international obligations in the matter.

A supervisory framework and mechanism has also been put in place to ensure effective coordination mechanism across the chain of agencies, organisations and regulators at federal and provincial levels through dedicated focal persons.

Pakistan’s existing ground realities would now be reviewed on the basis of its progress reports and APG evaluations in coming meetings in Bangkok starting from September 5 and then finally in Paris on October 18-23 to conclude if Islamabad has delivered on 27-point action plan committed to the FATF to get out of the grey list.

Pakistan has also started bilateral engagements with key FATF and APG members to muster political support as India continues an adversarial campaign.

In June, the FATF expressed concern that not only Pakistan had failed to complete its action plan with January deadlines, it had also failed to complete its action plan which was due in May. It urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1501746/pm-sets-up-body-to-help-meet-fatf-targets
 
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has set up a high-powered 12-member National Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Coordination Committee to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till Dec 1.

Led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar, the committee comprises federal secretaries of finance, foreign affairs and interior besides heads of all the institutions and regulators concerned with money laundering and terror financing. They include the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), member (customs) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and DG of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU). The committee also has three senior officials from the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ).

“The committee is mandated to steer the national effort on FATF,” said a notification issued by the Prime Minister Office.

Led by economic affairs minister, coordination committee comprises three secretaries, heads of some institutions and three officials from GHQ

Before the establishment of the committee, the federal finance minister or the PM’s adviser on finance, as the case may be, and the secretary of finance used to lead all activities relating to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) to meet targets set by the FATF and its regional affiliate Asia-Pacific Group (AGP) under a comprehensive action plan to move out of the grey list of the global watchdog on financial crimes.

Pakistan is currently being monitored at three different but interlinked levels — APG, the United States and the FATF — that would determine the country’s possible exit from the FATF grey list. Given significant progress on its 10-point action plan on 27 different standards, authorities expect to secure a couple of months of grace period to be fully compliant when the country comes under final review of the FATF by mid-October.

Last week, the National Counter Terrorism Authority declared two more outfits — Hizbul Ahrar and Balochistan Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS) — as proscribed organisations under Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act, putting their members and activities under surveillance. Seventy-one organisations are already on the list.

Last week, the APG on Money Laundering downgraded Pakistan to “enhanced follow-up” category over technical deficiencies to meet normal international financial standards by October 2018. This meant that the country would now be required to submit quarterly progress reports, instead of biannual, to the APG, starting from February 1, 2020, to show improvements in its technical standards on AML/CFT.

The APG has 40 recommendations on AML standards and another eight on CFT. Importantly, the progress Pakistan made since October 2018 has not been considered in this report due to APG rules based on almost 40 special standards and benchmarks for ranking on money laundering and eight special recommendations on terror financing

This is despite the fact that the authorities claim that Pakistan has made significant progress on FATF standards and action plans, but due to APG’s odd methodology it did not consider Islamabad’s achievements after October 2018. They said the strengthening AML/CFT laws were significant development to merit removal from the grey list, but these have to be formally passed by the parliament and signed into law by the president. These bills were recently cleared by the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance and revenue.

Pakistan has engaged technical assistance providers as consultants in key institutions like the FBR, SECP, FMU and SBP with the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to complete the action plan and further strengthen the effectiveness of the AML/CFT regime.

The amendments to foreign exchange regulation laws (FERA) to restrict domestic movement of currency beyond a certain limit had also been cleared by the National Assembly’s standing committee to help relevant agencies curb the practice of Hawala/Hundi and other forms of illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Amendments to the FERA law through its section 23 enhance punishments, make it a cognizable offence and grant powers to the FIA to take prompt action against illegal foreign exchange operators. The AML crimes are now punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment and Rs5 million fine. The amendments reduce administrative process to cooperate with financial intelligence units of other countries and prompt generation of suspicious transaction reports.

The law enforcement agencies have taken actions in recent months against proscribed organisations such as the Haqqani Network, Jamaatud Dawa and other banned outfits to demonstrate to the international community that the new leadership is committed to taking whatever steps are needed to meet its international obligations in the matter.

A supervisory framework and mechanism has also been put in place to ensure effective coordination mechanism across the chain of agencies, organisations and regulators at federal and provincial levels through dedicated focal persons.

Pakistan’s existing ground realities would now be reviewed on the basis of its progress reports and APG evaluations in coming meetings in Bangkok starting from September 5 and then finally in Paris on October 18-23 to conclude if Islamabad has delivered on 27-point action plan committed to the FATF to get out of the grey list.

Pakistan has also started bilateral engagements with key FATF and APG members to muster political support as India continues an adversarial campaign.

In June, the FATF expressed concern that not only Pakistan had failed to complete its action plan with January deadlines, it had also failed to complete its action plan which was due in May. It urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1501746/pm-sets-up-body-to-help-meet-fatf-targets

So it was not fake news...government finally acknowledged that it got downgraded by APG..
 
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