FATF praises India's anti-money laundering system, advises to remove delays in prosecutions
FATF: The Paris-headquartered body FATF leads global action to combat money laundering, terrorism, and proliferation financing. The latest decisions of the FATF were made public during the FATF Plenary held here between June 26-28. The Indian side was represented by Vivek Aggarwal, Additional Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry and Director-in-Charge of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The global anti-money laundering watchdog FATF, on Friday, accepted India's mutual evaluation report in matters related to anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism. It said in a brief statement after its plenary meeting in Singapore that the country's legal system in both these matters is fetching good results.
However, FATF also pointed out that the country has to remove the hurdles in effectively completing money laundering and prosecutions associated with the financing of terrorism. According to FATF, the final assessment report regarding the Country will be published later when a review about quality and consistency is completed.
The Paris-based FATF sets the global standards to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. An announcement to this end was made after FATF's latest decisions, which opened in the June 26-28 Singapore FATF Plenary. The Indian side was represented by Vivek Agarwal, Additional Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry and Director-in-Charge of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
According to a statement of the Union Finance Ministry in New Delhi, this positive assessment by FATF underlines an essential milestone in India's journey against money laundering and financing of terrorism. It said that India's performance on FATF mutual assessment reflects the overall stability and integrity of the financial system.
The assessment of FATF guidelines is an initiative where the country's efficacy in making effective laws and policies, along with their execution to probe financial crimes, is looked into. It was last done in 2010. FATF's review of India concluded earlier this year when the team visited New Delhi 'on-site' or met officials of various intelligence and investigative agencies.
The TAG FATF— being the intergovernmental body and watchdog on money laundering—has largely praised New Delhi's compliance with its rules; the organization, however, firmly observes that India needs to enhance its supervision of preventive measures in specific non-financial sectors.
The FATF adopted the mutual evaluation report on India on Friday. As per the FATF statement, the Report assesses the effectiveness of India's measures to combat money laundering terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
The FATF is an intergovernmental organization established in 1989 to combat money laundering, financing of terrorism, and other threats to the integrity of the international financial system. India became a member of the FATF in the year 2010.
According to FATF, based in Paris, India has achieved a "high level of technical compliance" with its standards. Progress could be read at quite a good level regarding the country's understanding of risks relating to money laundering and financing of terrorism, engaging in international cooperation, depriving offenders of their assets, and implementing proliferation financing measures.
The FATF review has come amidst NGOs' accusations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration misused anti-terrorism laws to target NGOs and policy think tanks, including Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
