FATF team in Pak to examine steps taken against terror funding

A team of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to hold meetings with top Pakistani officials on Monday to discuss the measures taken by Pakistan so far to counter money laundering and terror financing. The nine-member delegation, comprising members of FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG), arrived here on Sunday on a 12-day visit to see the implementation of the action plan Pakistan had issued earlier this year, official sources said.

The team includes experts from British Scotland Yard, US Department of Treasury, Financial Intelligence Unit of Maldives, Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Peoples’ Bank of China and Justice Department of Turkey.

Pakistan was formally added to the ‘grey list’ of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorism and related causes after a FATF meet in Paris in June. The FATF is an intergovernmental body set up in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Sources said “Pakistan has done its homework” and the team will be briefed about the measures to curb terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances. The team will carry out on-site inspections to see the systems and mechanisms put in place while its three members will stay for longer period to review progress on the 10-point action plan agreed with Pakistan.