After Pakistan's removal, know list of 'dangerous' countries on FATF's anti-terror ‘grey list’

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday announced that Pakistan, which has been repeatedly slammed by the international community for links with terror groups, was removed from the anti-terror funding ‘grey list’ of the organization.

The terror watchdog group said in its official statement that Islamabad would continue to work with the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering to further improve its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system.

FATF said it welcomes Pakistan's significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime. The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog said after its plenary here that Pakistan strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that FATF identified.

Pakistan was not the only country that was removed from the grey list by FATF. Nicaragua was also removed from the terror funding list, while Myanmar was blacklisted and labeled as a dangerous country when it comes to terror funding.

Here are the countries which are added to the FATF anti-terror grey list –

• Albania
• Barbados
• Burkina Faso
• Cayman Islands
• Cambodia
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Jordan
• Mali
• Malta
• Morocco
• Myanmar
• Panama
• Philippines
• Senegal
• South Sudan
• Syria
• Turkey
• Uganda
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

Greylisting means FATF has placed a country under advanced monitoring to check its development on measures against money laundering and terrorism financing. The “grey list” is also known as the “increased monitoring list”.

FATF places certain countries on a global terrorism watchlist after concluding that these countries were not able to prevent international money laundering and terrorist financing inside their borders.

The list is officially called "jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies" and is updated by FATF from time to time to make sure that there is global awareness about countries that can be deemed dangerous when it comes to terror funding.

READ | DNA Explainer: Pakistan out of FATF's anti-terror grey list, know what greylisting means