BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 19
By Elnur Bagishov – Trend:
The banks of neighboring countries may cease cooperation with Iran in the field of trade and currency exchange, Mahmoud Rafii, economist and teacher at the Islamic Azad University of Iran’s Isfahan province, said.
“As a result, the Iranian businessmen will face problems,” Rafii added, Trend reports referring to IRNA.
The economist added that recently several countries, including Malaysia's banking and financial institutions, stopped to cooperate with Iranian citizens and froze Iranian accounts.
"Malaysian officials said that this decision was made under international pressure," Rafii said.
The economist said that Iran is not included in the FATF blacklist and if Iran is included in the black list, neighboring countries will cease cooperation with Iran.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 Group to combat money laundering. FATF has 37 members and its secretariat is situated in Paris.
The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
During the FATF recent meeting, Iran has been warned that it may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries within the next three months if it does not completely fulfill the FATF requirements. Iran fulfilled 37 of 41 FATF requirements. The remaining four requirements refer to the legislative field.
Although four conventions have been approved and sent to the Expediency Board, the CFT and Palermo conventions have not yet been ratified by the Board.
Iran was included in the FATF blacklist in 2007.