Three-day FATF meeting to begin in Paris today

PARIS: A new meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will begin in Paris today.

The meeting will continue from October 20 to 22 to discuss strengthening the global fight against terrorism and a decision on removing Pakistan from the grey list is expected. 

The meeting will be chaired by Dr. Marcus Pleyer from Germany. The meeting will be attended by 205 members of the Global Network, delegates from observer organizations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations (UN), and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

A statement issued yesterday in reference to the FATF meeting said that the delegates would discuss key issues to strengthen global action against financing to promote crime and terrorism.

The FATF will finalize revised key reports on virtual assets and their service providers, the statement said. Delegates will also discuss the results of the FATF survey, which aims to identify countries where laws have been strengthened to curb various anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.

Increased surveillance of Pakistan

On June 25, the FATF decided to put Pakistan on its gray list, but the committee said it was committed to Pakistan’s progress and efforts to address the issues identified by the FATF under the country’s action plan. 

Speaking at a press conference after the last five-day meeting of the FATF, Dr. Marx Player had said that the monitoring had revealed that Pakistan had taken significant steps to curb the financing of terrorists.

He said the Pakistani government had made significant progress in strengthening its counter-terrorism financing system. Pakistan has completed the implementation of 26 out of 27 points given by FATF.