Terror: FATF applauds India, cautions against threats from within and without
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Global anti-money laundering and terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), on Thursday, said the South Asian nation’s systems are “effective” but “major improvements” are also required to strengthen prosecution in these cases.
The much-awaited, 368-page-long mutual evaluation report on India was released after the assessment was adopted by the Paris-headquartered body at its June 2023 plenary meeting, the media reported.
The last such review of India’s combating of money laundering and terror financing regime was published in 2010.
The report, coming after an on-site visit of FATF experts to India in November 2023, has placed the country in the “regular follow-up” category, a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries.
India will undergo its next evaluation in 2031.
The FATF report said India implemented such an anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terror (CFT) system that has proved effective in many respects.
It, however, said “major improvements” were required to strengthen the prosecution in money laundering and terror financing cases. Improvements in the system were also required to protect the non-profit sector from terror abuse.
“India’s main sources of money laundering originate from within, from illegal activities committed within the country,” it said, adding the country faced a “disparate” range of terror threats, most significantly from ISIL (Islamic State or ISIS) or AQ-linked groups (Al Qaeda) active in and around Jammu and Kashmir.
The report analyzed the level of compliance with the FATF’s 40 recommendations and the level of effectiveness of India’s AML/CFT system and provided recommendations on how the system can be strengthened.
