ISLAMABAD: The Asia-Pacific Group on Wednesday adopted Pakistan’s mutual evaluation report and has identified a number of deficiencies in the country’s anti-money laundering and combating terror financing framework.

APG highlighted that the report by Pakistan does not cover the areas in which the government has made substantial progress since October 2018.

A senior-level delegation from Pakistan, headed by Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Reza Baqir, attended the meeting in Canberra, Australia.

The MER covers the period from February to October 2018 and identifies a number of areas where further actions are required to strengthen the AML/CFT framework.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has already grey-listed Pakistan with effect from June 2018 and any adverse findings by the APG – as a result of its March 26-28 inspections – could further complicate problems for the government.

The APG is the FATF-style regional body for the Asia-Pacific region. It is an inter-governmental organisation founded in 1997 in Bangkok. The mutual evaluation process by the APG is separate from the FATF but it is based on the implementation of 40 FATF recommendations.

In the discussions, Pakistan welcomed engagement with the international community in its efforts to countering terrorism and money laundering.

The delegation briefed APG members on the steps taken in recent times for improving its AML/CFT framework as well as the actions for ensuring effective implementation of the FATF Action Plan.

They also held a number of bilateral meetings with key delegations to brief them on recent progress by Pakistan in implementing the FATF Action Plan.

Pakistan is a member of the APG since 2000. APG is a regional body of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and requires its members to undergo mutual evaluation on the compliance of its anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework with FATF recommendations.

During the meetings, Pakistan’s Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) also signed an MoU with the China Anti Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center (CAMLAC) on exchange of financial intelligence.