FATF adopts India's mutual evaluation report; praises anti-money laundering regime, advises quick prosecution

SINGAPORE: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday adopted the mutual evaluation report of India's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime, a move hailed by the government as a "significant milestone".

In its brief outcome statement after its plenary meeting here, the global body said India's legal regime in these two domains was achieving good results.

It, however, said the country needs to address delays relating to concluding money laundering and terrorist financing prosecutions.

The final evaluation report for the country will be published later when the "quality and consistency review" is completed, it said.

The Paris-headquartered body leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. The latest decisions were made public during the FATF Plenary held here between June 26-28.

The Indian side was represented by Additional secretary in the Union finance ministry and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in-charge Director Vivek Aggarwal.

In New Delhi, the Union finance ministry issued a statement saying the positive evaluation of India by the FATF was a significant milestone in the country's efforts to combat money laundering, terror financing.

India's performance on FATF mutual evaluation demonstrates overall stability, integrity of the financial system, the ministry said.

India's mutual evaluation on FATF guidelines, a measure that checks a country's efficacy to make effective laws and policy and their implementation to check financial crimes, was last done in 2010.

An FATF peer review of India ended early this year after the team made an 'on-site' or a physical visit to New Delhi and met officials from various intelligence and investigative agencies.