TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 10
Trend:
The chairman of energy committee of Iran chamber of commerce said that the country must take efforts to increase the level of trade with the world to ensure economic growth; otherwise, Iran face growing poverty of its population of 80 million.
“In addition to sanctions, the FATF issue has also led to problems for the return of export earned foreign currencies and thus, apart from the private sector, the government also cannot return the money blocked in Italy, India and South Korea,” Hamidreza Salehi said referring to non-approval of the bills that allow Iran to join the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Trend reports citing ILNA.
"Banking relationships around the world are defined within the framework of the FATF,” he said adding that just as the world opposes money laundering and non-transparent banking relationships, Iran holds the same position.
The head of commission noted: "Now, our country complies with many provisions of FATF related conventions, but we have not yet formally accepted it. We need to remove banking obstacles; otherwise, in addition to sanctions, the FATF issue will further challenge our oil and non-oil exports.”
Salehi went on to say: "We must have a plan to return the export earned foreign currency through banking system, which will not be happened without approving FATF related bills.”
Back in 2017, FATF, a multilateral organization overseeing compliance with anti-money laundering and transparency banking rules and regulations, asked Iran to adopt a law in support of financial transparency and against money-laundering and financing of terrorism.
Since then, Iranian parliament passed a series of bills, but a constitutional body tasked with approving legislation refused to endorse two particular laws.
The organization penalized Iran on February 21, by authorizing member states to take up strict counter-measures against Tehran for not passing appropriate financial safeguarding laws. Being on the FATF blacklist is currently causing serious issues for Iran's international banking and consequently its trade.
Furthermore, this led to stoppage of all of Iran's international banking relations and most of its trade forcing businesses into limited transactions with higher costs.