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Iranian banking system must join Financial Action Task Force - economist

Business Materials 18 October 2018 21:35 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Oct.18

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Iranian banking system must join the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in order to engage in international economic sphere and have close relations with the rest of the world, especially neighboring countries, Mahdi Pazouki, a Professor of Economics at Allameh Tabatabi University in Tehran told Trend.

“I have always believed that the adoption of the FATF in Iran parliament is necessary to advance our interests, and fortunately the parliament has succeeded in ratifying it to facilitate the need for interact with the world, along the government's policy which is in the direction of engagement with the international community, “ he said.

Enacting legislation against money laundering and terrorism financing has been a long struggle between the Iranian parliament, which is dominated by moderate conservatives and reformists, and the Guardian Council, whose members are largely appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader.

“Iran is a victim of terrorism,” he said. “One of the FATF's duties is countering terrorism financing, while Iran itself is the victim, so the CFT (Combating the Financing of Terrorism) bill is within the interest of Iran.”

Referring to Combat Money Laundering (CML) bill and its debates in Iran parliament he says, the second bill concerns the anti-money laundering law passed by the Iranian parliament at the beginning of 2007.

"Of course, we should not forget that the adoption of these bills does not mean solving the economic problems. The elimination of our economic dilemmas is rooted in our management," he said.

But to work with the banking system in the world, we have to comply with the rules, which, thankfully, the government has taken the right steps in this direction, an economic expert said.

"The triangle of the US, Israel and domestic hard-liners oppose the FATF," said Pazouki, referring to those who opposed joining to FATF. “But many believe that this is necessary for our national interest and its rejection is self-sanctioning.

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