Pakistan was placed on the list in 2018, which adversely impacted its imports, exports, remittances, and limited access to international lending.
New Delhi: Pakistan has been on FATF's grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018.
Having missed two targets out of 34 action points, the Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has kept Pakistan on its terrorism financing "grey list". Islamabad has been asked yet again to address the remaining deficiencies in its financial system as soon as possible.
At the concluding session of its hybrid plenary meeting on Friday, the Paris-based FATF added the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to its increased monitoring list, also known as the grey list, of countries with inadequate controls over terrorism financing.
The watchdog also decided to appoint T. Raja Kumar of Singapore as its next president for a fixed two-year term.
The greylisting has adversely impacted Pakistan's imports, exports, remittances, and limited access to international lending. Pakistan was placed on the list in 2018, which made foreign firms more cautious about investing in the country.
The Friday plenary noted Pakistan had completed 26 of the 27 action items in its 2018 action plan of the FATF and the seven action items of the 2021 action plan of the watchdog's Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) ahead of the deadlines.
In July 2021, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar reportedly told a group of BJP lawmakers that it was "due to India" that Pakistan is now under the lens of the terror-funding watchdog FATF. On June 25, 2021, the FATF retained Pakistan on the list of countries under "increased monitoring".
Since 2018, New Delhi has pointed out that despite making commitments in international fora, Pakistan establishment has given "freedom and impunity with which the designated terrorists like Hafiz Saed and entities like Jamaat-Ud-Dawaa, Lashkar-e-Tayabba, Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate in Pakistan.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats.
