China welcomes FATF’s decision to remove Pakistan from grey list

BEIJING: China has welcomed the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove Pakistan from its ‘grey list’ on anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing regimes.

During his regular briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin welcomed the decision said this shows international support and recognition of Pakistan’s endeavor in this regard.

“China welcomes the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove Pakistan from its “grey list” and would like to send congratulations to Pakistan,” he said.

He remarked that this had been made possible thanks to Pakistan’s effort to firmly follow through on its political commitment and continuously improve and enhance its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system over the past five years despite the difficulties.

“This also shows international support and recognition of Pakistan’s endeavor in this regard,” he added.

He said that the Chinese side looked forward to Pakistan’s positive contributions to advancing international counter-terrorism cooperation and protecting the security of the international financial system.

It should be mentioned that the recently-concluded Plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in October declared in an open statement the removal of Pakistan from its “grey list”.

FATF President Raja Kumar informed that the task force conducted an onsite visit at the end of August before deciding to remove Pakistan from the list.

“Pakistan has made significant improvements to strengthen the effectiveness of this framework for combating terrorism financing,” Kumar added.

The FATF issued a statement saying that it welcomes Pakistan’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime.

Pakistan has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in June 2018 and June 2021, the latter of which was completed in advance of the deadlines, encompassing 34 action items in total.

Pakistan is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process. Pakistan will continue to work with APG to further improve its AML/CFT system, it added.

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