Islamabad (Agencies): A delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), held talks with Pakistani officials in the federal capital on Tuesday.
The talks between Pakistan and the nine-member APG delegation led by Executive Secretary Garden Hook will continue for three days, to assess the country’s progress on global standards against money laundering.
The visiting assessment team, which arrived in Islamabad on Monday, comprises Ian Collins of New Scotland Yard, James Prussing of Department of the Treasury United States, Ashraf Abdulla of Financial Intelligence Unit Maldives, Boby Wahyu Hernawan of Indonesia's Ministry of Finance, Gong Jingyan of People's Bank of China; Mustafa Necmeddin of Turkey's Ministry of Justice, Deputy Director Muhammad Al-Rashdan and Deputy Director Shannon Rutherford.
The APG assessment team is discussing the second draft of Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) with the relevant stakeholders. The team is also meeting officials from the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and Federal Investigation Agency.
If Pakistan fails to satisfy the FATF delegation to remove its name from the "grey list", then a new plan of action can be given to the country.
FATF, a global body that combats terror financing and money laundering, had taken the decision to place Pakistan on its 'grey list' during a plenary meeting in February 2018.
Pakistan was formally added to the 'grey list' of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorism and related causes after a June 2018 meeting of FATF in Paris.
The country was also included in the list from 2012 to 2015.
