A nine member delegation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including the group's Asia Pacific Group (APG) arrived in Pakistan for a twelve-day visit on Monday. The team will hold talks with top officials to discuss measures taken by the country to counter money laundering and terror financing after it was added in the 'grey list' for providing financial assistance to terrorists.
The team includes experts from British Scotland Yard, US Department of Treasury, Financial Intelligence Unit of Maldives, Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Peoples' Bank of China and Justice Department of Turkey.
Pakistan was formally added to the 'grey list' of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorists and related causes after a FATF meeting in Paris in June.
Sources in the finance ministry said that "Pakistan has done its homework" and the delegation will be briefed about the measures to curb terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances.
The team will carry out on-site inspections in order to see the systems and mechanisms put in place while its three members will stay for longer period to review progress on the 10-point action plan agreed with Pakistan.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
Pakistan and FATF negotiated a 10-point action plan to be implemented by September 2019 to get out of the grey list.
Earlier, a team of FATF visited Islamabad in August to identify deficiencies in Pakistan's anti-money laundering/counter-terror financing laws and mechanisms.
During the current visit, the experts will meet officials from ministries of Interior, Finance, Foreign affairs and Law.
They are also likely to meet officials of State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, National Counter-Terrorism Authority, Federal Investigation Agency, Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau, Anti-Narcotics Force, Financial Monitoring Unit, Central Directorate of National Savings and provincial counter-terrorism departments.
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