Pakistan’s 3rd Follow-up Report

Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has published results of Pakistan’s third Mutual Evaluation follow-up Report on 12 August 2021. As per the report, Pakistan has achieved compliant/largely compliant rating in 4 more recommendations leading aggregate to 35/40 Recommendations rated as Compliant (C) or Largely Compliant (LC). Pakistan is now in the top tier of countries that have achieved a rating of C/LC for over 30 of the 40 FATF Recommendations. Moreover, Pakistan has also achieved the rating of Largely Compliance / Compliance in all Big Six Recommendations of the FATF which includes R.3(Money laundering offence), R.5(Terrorist financing offence), R.6(Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism & terrorist financing), R.10(Customer due diligence), R.11(Record keeping) and R.20(Reporting of suspicious transactions).

These results prove the sincerity along with resolve of the Government in complying with FATF requirements. These results are also a manifestation of the irreversibility and sustainability of the complete process in bringing Pakistan at par with Global AML/CFT standards.

Pakistan’s MER was adopted in August 2019 in which Pakistan was rated compliant and largely complaint in 10 out of 40 FATF Recommendations for the Technical Compliance. Pakistan carried out major legal reforms with the enactment of 17 Laws along with relevant rules and regulations. The laws not only strengthened the systems in Pakistan but also brought in the sustainability.