ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom on Monday removed Pakistan from its list of “high risk” countries, its foreign office said, after the South Asian country strengthened its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing protocols.
Pakistan was among 21 countries that were added to the list in April 2021 due to unsatisfactory money laundering and terrorist financing protocols.
The British government’s list had replicated a list issued by a global dirty-money watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), of the countries under “increased monitoring.” Pakistan was placed at number 15 on the UK’s list along with Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe,
The latest move by the British government comes weeks after the FATF struck Pakistan off its ‘grey list’ following an early completion of its action plans by the South Asian country.
“His Majesty’s Treasury issued an amendment to the UK’s ‘High Risk Third Countries’ list on 14 November 2022 through a statutory instrument,” the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a letter to the Pakistani high commission.
“The amendment removes Pakistan from the list in accordance with the decision taken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 21 October 2022.”
The FCDO said it recognized the progress Pakistan had made to “improve money laundering and terrorist financing controls.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called the development a “good news” for his country.
“The United Kingdom has officially removed Pakistan from its list of ‘High Risk Third Countries’ following our early completion of FATF action plans,” he said on Twitter.
FATF last month removed Pakistan from its ‘grey list’ after Pakistan successfully implemented 34 action points to counter money laundering and terror financing to get off the list of countries with vulnerable financial systems.
Pakistan was added to the FATF ‘grey list’ in June 2018.
Being on the Paris-based watchdog’s ‘grey list’ can scare away investors and creditors, hurting exports, output and consumption. It also can make global banks wary of doing business with a country.