"Nothing to worry" say intelligence officials ahead of FATF visit to India

A team from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is scheduled to visit India on November 3 in order to assess the country’s anti-money laundering laws and financing of terrorism. However, a report by News18 quoted Indian intelligence sources as saying that “we have nothing to worry because our mechanism is very strong”. This month, the FATF teams made up of representatives from the UK, Brazil, South Africa, France, Malaysia, and Russia will travel to India to conduct due diligence. The FATF team will have meetings with representatives from the finance, revenue, and enforcement departments as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). According to the sources, the goal is to “shut down parallel economy and we have done everything very successfully” under Narendra Modi’s direction. The global transparency system will also be examined by the FATF. Intelligence sources claim that Pakistan, which was taken off the FATF’s grey list in October of last year, has been actively lobbying investigators to place India under investigation. Also, the FATF has designated Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar as “high-risk jurisdictions” and placed them on a blacklist. FATF claims that nations included on its black list are high-risk jurisdictions that may be subject to an action request. The nations on the “Grey List” are those that are subject to “increased monitoring.” The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union, and International Monetary Fund do not provide any financial assistance to nations that are listed as black or grey. They also have to deal with a lot of financial and economic sanctions from around the world. The FATF stated that Myanmar should keep working on putting its action plan into practise in order to address the shortcomings. This includes showing that “Hundi” operators are registered and under supervision, that on-site and off-site inspections are risk-based, and that the nation has a better understanding of money laundering risks in important areas.