Tehran, Iran, February 28
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has decided to keep Iran on its blacklist of high-risk countries for now, Tasnim news agency reported February 28.
The FATF has said Iran will continue to stay on the blacklist as far as it has not fully implemented the Action Plan, a set of measures designed for Iran to make its financial affairs transparent and verifiable.
This is while just a week earlier, Deputy Economy Minister Hossein Qazavi had said Tehran was determined to take measures to quit the blacklist.
An intergovernmental organization, the FATF monitors money laundering and terrorism financing worldwide.
The body decided in late June, 2016 to keep Iran on its blacklist of high-risk countries, but welcomed Iranian promises to improve and “suspended counter-measures for 12 months in order to monitor Iran’s progress in implementing the Action Plan”.
The Iranian Ministry of Economy recently published a report on the country's interactions with the task force, calling the suspension of restrictions one of the two "landmark" events for the Iranian economy during the four-year tenure of the current government led by President Hassan Rouhani.
The report points to the backlash from mainly military-related bodies asserting that Iran's FATF cooperation would lead to the disclosure of the country's financial and banking secrets.
These criticisms were "fully addressed by the government", it said.