BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 7
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran can solve the problems that arise in this regard, by adopting the FATF conventions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a government meeting today on July 7, Trend reports citing the Iranian President Office’s official website.
According to Rouhani, Iran's banking relations with the rest of the world will face problems until it adopts the FATF conventions. At present, banks in more than 190 countries operate within the FATF. The two countries, North Korea and Iran are outside this framework. Although Iran has returned to this framework in recent years, it has been expelled from the FATF again for failing to ratify the conventions.
The president added that the country's risk has increased with the blacklisting of Iran's name by the FATF. Because no one wants to invest in this case. The main reason for this is that investments of local and foreign investors are ultimately made through banks. Because a person cannot carry $500 million or $1 billion with him.
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 the 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 reciprocal steps against Iran through diplomatic steps has been postponed since 2016. FATF included Iran on the blacklist again on Feb. 21, 2020.