TEHRAN, Iran, Apr.8
Trend:
Iran's membership in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s Palermo and CFT conventions is a specialized economic issue that has turned into a political issue in our country, said the Chairman of Iran and China Joint Chamber of Commerce, Majidreza Hariri.
"FATF is not the main issue in our economy, the main problem is sanctions. In terms of macro levels if Iran was not in the FATF black list, it still could not have interaction with the global banking system due to sanctions against Iran's banking relations," he said in an interview to Trend.
"When the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed, sanctions were lifted , foreign banks could not work with Iran that was caused by lack of Iran's membership in the FATF and after lifting sanction we would see the importance of the FATF. Those that approve of the FATF-related bills say it would confront corruption and money laundering and create transparency," Hariri added.
"At the moment the FATF has focused on Iran and would not let Iran enter the financial system since we do not accept the bills. If Iran accepts the FATF conventions and then violates them it would be punished severely by the situation similar to what we are facing now," the chairman noted.
Iran has currently accepted and implemented major anti-money laundering and terrorism legislations in its banking system.