FATF Asia-Pacific blacklists Pakistan for terror funding

The International Terror Watchdog for Terror Funding, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has blacklisted the nation of Pakistan for various non-compliances and non-enforcements of international terror controls and safeguards.

What has happened?

• The FATF has been placed in the blacklist of the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG) for the violations and the non-compliance of terror financing safeguards and inability to control money laundering.
• The FATF has already greylisted Pakistan for its previous failures on controlling domestic terror financing.
• The Asia-Pacific group is one of the nine affiliates of the FATF which had met in Canberra, Australia to formulate a five-year review of the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) for Pakistan.
• However, the blacklisting by FATF does not place any new sanctions or controls on Pakistan, as it was in terror control greylist.
• Other Countries currently under the review in the current session in the APG include China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands apart from Pakistan.?
• Pakistan has the option to file a review before APG before the FATF.

What is FATF?

• The Financial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering) (FATF), is an intergovernmental organization which was founded on the initiative of G7 in 1989.
• It aims to develop policies which to combat money laundering and was later mandated to include terrorism financing.
• The FATF Secretariat is headquartered with the OECD in Paris.