BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
The Central Bank, along with other trade sectors, will meet Iran's trade needs, Director General of the Central Bank Abdul-Nasser Hemmati wrote on his Instagram page, Trend reports.
“Iran managed its economy outside Financial Action Task Force (FATF) despite the US sanctions,” Hemmati added. “As a result of the US pressure, FATF included Iran into a black list again. However, in many reports, Iran has taken major steps within the conventions envisaged by FATF.”
"The activity of the Central Bank over the past year has created such a situation that the inclusion of Iran into FATF blacklist will not cause any problems with Iran's foreign trade and foreign exchange rate," the director general said.
The objectives of 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 recent FATF meeting, Iran has been warned that it may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries within 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.
The amendments to Counter-Terrorist Financing Act, Anti-Money Laundering Act, Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo) and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) were prepared by the Iranian government and sent to the parliament.
Although the four conventions have been approved and sent to the Expediency Council of Iran, the CFT and Palermo conventions have not yet been ratified by the Council.
FATF was established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 Group to combat money laundering. FATF has 37 members and its secretariat is in Paris.
Iran was included in the FATF blacklist in 2007. The anti-Tehran steps have been taken since 2009. Thus, the countries were cautious in their financial and banking transactions with Iran.
Taking of reciprocal steps against Iran through diplomatic steps has been postponed since 2016.
FATF included Iran into the black list again on Feb. 21.