Tehran, Iran, March 23
Trend:
The fear of Financial Action Task Force (FATF)- related bills among Iranian people is pointless, since it will gradually allow to evaluate transparency in transactions, former CEO of Bank Saderat Seyed Bahaeddin Hosseini Hashemi told Trend.
Some say the FATF-related bills for Iran’s joining the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Combating Financing of Terrorism is a treason and that the bills are colonial and are considered as self-inflicted injury. They believe that it will damage Iran’s economy instead of being profitable for the country and those bills do not envisage commitment to facilitate the banking relations of Iran. Meanwhile, others believe that Iran's accession is being delayed and it will be irreversible lose for Iran's economy.
"FATF has not been approved by the Guardian Council yet and unfortunately, some unprofessional individuals are commenting on the issue,” said Hashemi.
The economist noted that the fear among the people over this issue is pointless, since the bills will eventually ensure healthy transactions and pave way for evaluating transparency as in any other parts of the world, thereby, money laundering will be revealed and controlled.
“If the bills are not approved, it will cause the biggest damage and self-inflicted injury to Iran's economy. At the moment, there are only some countries in the world that are currently being black listed by FATF. Iran and North Korea were the ones listed in the system, but fortunately Iran has been removed from the list and hopefully the bill will be approved by the Guardian Council,” he added.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the 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. The FATF is therefore a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.
The FATF monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally. In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse.
