FATF lauds India’s competence to combat money laundering, terror financing

PTI, New Delhi: Global anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing body FATF on Thursday released India’s much anticipated mutual evaluation report, saying the country’s systems in these domains were “effective” but “major improvements” were required to strengthen prosecution in such cases. The 368-page report with a cover picture of India’s new Parliament draped in Tricolour lights was released after the assessment was adopted by the Paris-headquartered body during its plenary meeting held in June. The report, which comes after a visit of FATF experts to India last November, 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 Union finance ministry issued a series of posts on its X handle, saying India achieved “a significant milestone by securing regular follow up rating from FATF” and that this was a “proud moment”. “This is a testament to our nation’s commitment to combating money laundering and terrorist financing,” it said. The report said India achieved a high level of technical compliance across the FATF recommendations and took significant steps to implement measures to tackle illicit finance. “Nevertheless, it is critical that the country continues to improve its system as its economy and financial system continue to grow, in particular ensuring that money laundering and terrorist financing trials are completed and offenders are subject to appropriate sanctions; and taking a risk-based and educative approach with non-profit organisations,” its executive summary said.

The summary said it could be concluded that India had implemented an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework that was achieving “good” results, including on risk understanding, access to beneficial ownership information and depriving criminals of their assets.