US encourages Pakistan to continue anti-money laundering efforts

• The US welcomes FATF decision to remove Pakistan from grey list. 
• The US recognises Pakistan's efforts, says the State Department. 
• The FATF removed Pakistan from the grey list. 

The United States hailed the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove Pakistan from the grey list.

The US acknowledges the efforts and progress of Pakistan, the State Department said in a statement issued on Friday.

The US State Department said that Pakistan has met the FATF targets by addressing its "strategic deficiencies." Due to these efforts, Pakistan came off the FATF's grey list, it said.

The US State Department said that the US encouraged Pakistan to continue its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism efforts.

The Paris-based global anti-dirty money watchdog met in the two-day plenary session on October 20 and 21. The world's money laundering and terror-financing watchdog said that Pakistan has been removed from the grey list and is no longer subject to its increased monitoring process.

Pakistan put on grey list in 2018

To recall, Pakistan was placed on FATF’s grey list in June 2018 whereby it was found non-compliant with recommendations of the FATF which targeted areas of risk assessment, national cooperation, targeted sanctions, preventive measures, due diligence, internal and third-party controls, law enforcement, regulation and supervision for money laundering and terror financing, among others.

After constant efforts in 2022, the FATF Plenary in June, under the German Presidency of Dr Marcus Pleyer, acknowledged the progress Pakistan made against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) with all 34 action points implemented.

Through various bills and amendments, the Pakistani authorities diligently worked to satisfy the FATF.

These related to laws against money laundering, freezing of assets and filing of cases against proscribed organisations, actions against terror financing etc.

However, the final decision to take Pakistan off the grey list was conditional upon a successful on-site visit of the FATF team.

The FATF team conducted an on-site visit to Pakistan a few weeks back, with the purpose of inspecting the legal, regulatory, and operational reforms and procedures implemented for compliance.