BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The solution to the FATF problem in Iran can solve many problems of the country, Iran's Minister of Economy and Finance Abdolnaser Hemmati told reporters, TurkicWorld reports.
According to him, the adoption of BFT and the Palermo Convention in the country will not lead to Iran's withdrawal from FATF.
Hemmati said a lot of efforts should be made to remove Iran from the FATF blacklist. The fact that Iran is on the FATF blacklist poses a lot of problems.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an intergovernmental body that regulates the rules for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. At the last meeting of this organization, Iran was warned that if the country's program of steps is not improved, Iran may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries. Iran has complied with 37 out of 41 FATF steps.
The remaining four steps or conventions fall under the scope of the legislation. "Amendments to the Law on Combating Money Laundering," "Amendments to the Law on Combating the Financing of Terrorism," "Accession to the International Convention on Combating Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo)," and Accession to the International Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) have been drafted by the Iranian government and sent to the parliament. Although the four conventions were approved by the parliament and sent to the Advisory Council, the CFT conventions and the Palermo Convention have not yet been approved by the mentioned council.
The FATF was founded in 1989 at the behest of the G7 group to address money laundering. The organization comprises 37 members, with its administration situated in Paris.
Since 2007, Iran has been designated as a high-risk jurisdiction by the FATF, with formal sanctions enacted on Tehran in 2009. Consequently, nations needed to exercise prudence in financial and banking transactions with Iran. Since 2016, diplomatic initiatives have postponed the implementation of retaliatory actions on Iran.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designated Iran as a non-cooperative country (blacklist) on February 21, 2020.
