Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar announced that the European Commission has removed Pakistan from the list of its “High Risk Third Countries”, which have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/ CFT) regimes.
Taking to Twitter, the minister penned that “EU has removed Pakistan from the List of High Risk Third Countries.”
“Pakistani businesses and individuals would no longer be subjected to ‘Enhanced Customer Due Diligence’ by European legal and economic operators,” he added.
In February 2019, the European Commission (EC) released a list of 23 countries, which included Pakistan, with inadequate anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations that needed to be improved without delay.,
The list
The European Union (EU) has placed a number of countries on its High Risk Third Country status list due to the fact that their systems for controlling money laundering and terrorist financing are deemed to be inadequate.
This means that financial institutions and other businesses based in the EU must take extra measures when dealing with financial flows to, from or through these countries. This includes conducting enhanced due diligence checks, monitoring transactions more closely, and reporting any suspicious activity to the relevant authorities.
Additionally, banks may be prevented from opening or maintaining accounts with institutions located in these countries. The list is constantly reviewed and updated as necessary.
