On June 19, 2020, Indian officials, including representatives from enforcement agencies, have participated in the 32nd special Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) plenary meeting 2020, under the aegis of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
- The virtual meet, chaired by the EAG Chairman Mr. Yury Chikhanchin (Russian Federation) and the EAG Deputy Chairman Mr. Farhod Bilolov (Republic of Tajikistan).Earlier, china planned to host this meeting in June 2020. However, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the FATF has decided to cancel the joint Plenary meeting.
Key issues discussed at the Plenary meeting:
-The meeting witnessed the approval of ML/TF (Money laundering /terrorist financing) risk assessment methodology in the Eurasian region along with the information collection methods.
-It saw the adoption of EAG Annual Report for 2019 and the EAG Budget for 2021, as well as approved amendments to a number of current EAG documents governing the EAG Secretariat’s activities.
-The Secretariat has presented the report on the progress in the implementation of the pilot project to coordinate the provision of technical assistance for the Republic of Tajikistan, which included interim findings.
-EAG members have taking necessary steps to curb the spread of the virus, including isolation and distancing at the national level, making on-site missions.Because of this, EAG Plenary Meeting decided to postpone the Mutual Evaluations and Progress Reports of the 2nd round of EAG Mutual Evaluations for one plenary cycle.
Pakistan and FATF:
As we know that Islamabad (Pakistan), which continues to remain on the “grey list” of FATF, had earlier been given the deadline till the June 2020 to ensure compliance with the 27 tasks, including stopping terrorist funding, eradicating terrorism from its land (Out of this, Pakistan was able to complete only 14 tasks till February 2020). However, due to the COVID-19, the deadline has been shifted to the October 18-23, 2020 plenary.
EAG of FATF: The EAG is a regional body consisting of 9 nations namely India, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. It is an associate member of the FATF.
About FATF:
Headquarters– Paris, France
Membership– 39
President– Xiangmin Liu
