“The schedule for FATF mutual evaluation has again been postponed from February 2021 and it is tentatively expected to begin in September 2022 now,” an officer told PTI. The FATF is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that sets international standards to prevent economic and financial crimes in a country with inter-connected linkages across the world. The FATF, post this review, had said in 2013 that “India had made significant progress in addressing deficiencies identified in its mutual evaluation report and [the FATF] decided that the country should be removed from the regular follow-up process.” In 2019, India had set up a joint working group comprising 22 Central investigation, intelligence gathering and regulatory agencies to make presentations, hold discussions and brief the FATF experts, drawn from various countries, once the process starts. The FATF too made a public declaration saying the dates for mutual evaluation of certain countries including India “will be rescheduled as soon as practicable”. “Due to the ongoing coronavirus emergency, the FATF and FATF-style regional bodies [FSRBs] are implementing precautionary measures that impact scheduled on-site visits and mutual evaluation discussions.

Source: The Hindu July 18, 2021 17:15 UTC