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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistan faces global banking isolation over terror financing | |
| 2018-03-10 | |
With Pakistan set to be placed on the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force’s “grey” list this June, following a round of farcical diplomacy in Paris last month, the country appears to be edging toward global banking isolation. Pakistan temporarily avoided being put on the grey list after failing, at the Paris meeting, to present its proposal to counter terror financing and money laundering. But Islamabad’s proposal will be scrutinized in a June meeting, and failing to satisfy the FATF could in fact result in Pakistan being put on the black list, alongside only two other offenders: Iran and North Korea. Pakistan hasn’t taken the necessary measures, as per the FATF’s instructions, to curb money laundering or combat financing for terrorism – the two domains that the watchdog reviews. The FATF has “40 plus 9” recommendations for all states – 40 pre-date 9/11; nine came after it. Pakistan falls short on many of those. “These are crystal clear instructions sent out to all the countries. Pakistan has been failing to fulfill its requirements,” says economist and columnist Farrukh Saleem, who is executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in Islamabad. The FATF judges states on three levels: legislation, institutional capacity and conviction. Speaking to Asia Times, Saleem said Pakistan hasn’t been doing enough of any of those fronts. “As far as the repercussions [for being put on the FATF grey list] are concerned, no country in the world can live in isolation – it’s a global village now,” he said. “Our imports are worth approximately US$55 billion, exports worth US$20 billion, with around US$20 billion worth of remittances. So roughly there’s US$100 billion worth of business that involves Pakistan – and all of this is through banking channels. “Once a country is on the grey list, all banking channels are put under scrutiny. This would result in constant delays in transactions. And there is a chance that many banks would simply refuse to do business in Pakistan.” | |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #1 After General Zia ul-Haq attempted to implement sharia-based Islamic banking in the nineteen eighties Pakistan banks began to keep two sets of books. Only one of which was shown the government. Thus began the corruption later manifested by the failure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Nothing much has changed, and rampant corruption exists in the Pak banking sector today. |
| Posted by: Clurong Peacock9529 2018-03-10 08:34 |