Feb.18, 2010
Iran leads the list of countries that have failed to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing, the Financial Action Task Force, a global standard-setting body, said Thursday.
The task force, based at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, reiterated a recommendation from last year that its members apply “effective countermeasures to protect their financial sectors from money laundering and financing of terrorism risks emanating from Iran.”
“The F.A.T.F. remains particularly concerned about Iran’s failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system,” said the statement, published at the group’s plenary meeting in Abu Dhabi.
The task force did, however, welcome the fact that Tehran had recently started to “engage” with it. The moves appear to be mainly symbolic, however, as many countries have already taken steps to limit their companies’ economic exchanges with Iran.
The announcement was made at the same time that moves are afoot at the United Nations, led by Washington, to apply tougher sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program. China, a major importer of Iranian oil, has so far appeared reluctant to agree to impose stiffer sanctions.
The task force report cited several other countries for “deficiencies” in their financial dealings and failure to commit to action plans to address them. The countries include Angola, North Korea, Ecuador and Ethiopia.
Pakistan, Turkmenistan and São Tomé and Príncipe were found to have problems that remain to be addressed, the report said.
China was not mentioned on the list even though, according to some experts, Beijing has lagged behind in certain areas of anti-money laundering action.
Founded in 1989 , the Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body to promote policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Most recently it has been working on projects for the Group of 20 economies to identify problem jurisdictions.