India’s Turn At the FATF

The saga of Pakistan and the FATF is one that I have written about extensively, having been an ardent contributor and advocate for the strategy that led to the country’s ultimately successful exit from the dreaded gray-list. The crux of that strategy involved a twofold approach: (1) improving financial oversight, legal frameworks, and institutional coordination for the intrinsic benefit to the financial regime, but also (2) calling out the deeply-politicized and corrupt agenda of the FATF as a transboundary body run amok. This dual-approach yielded excellent results for Pakistan, and incidentally, the agent-provocateur of that tussle with the FATF is now up for a similar review.
949 views

Continue Reading India’s Turn At the FATF

Goodbye FATF?

It was with a sense of jubilation that the media and public discourse in Pakistan announced the country’s exit from the so-called “gray list” of
359 views

Continue Reading Goodbye FATF?

A Sober Look at the FATF

The scope of money laundering is tiny in Pakistan compared to that of its eastern neighbor, but India’s dirty money is also dwarfed by the amount of illicit funding that…

Continue Reading A Sober Look at the FATF

While FATF Sleeps

The world was yet again left aghast by the scale of global money laundering when the recent FinCEN leaks were brought to public attention. The litany of files, assiduously studied…

Continue Reading While FATF Sleeps

New Laws and the FATF

Despite its glaring inconsistencies and extreme politicisation, the FATF has managed to deflect attention from its own partisan scheming as a tool for certain world capitals, and instead inflicted damage…

Continue Reading New Laws and the FATF

India in the FATF: A Fox in the Henhouse

Pakistan has been in the crosshairs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which put the country on its ‘grey list’ and now threatens it with outright blacklisting. The decision…

Continue Reading India in the FATF: A Fox in the Henhouse

Has the FATF Failed?

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-ministerial body that aims to curtail international money laundering and terrorist financing by setting standards for national financial architectures. It is a…

Continue Reading Has the FATF Failed?

Cryptocurrencies: Illegal in Pakistan?

Cryptocurrencies “would never be legalized” in Pakistan, according to recent remarks by Dr. Aisha Pasha to the Senate standing committee on finance, and the State Bank
749 views

Continue Reading Cryptocurrencies: Illegal in Pakistan?

People of the Whip

The combination of an ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan and its strident negotiations with the IMF have led many to a dispiriting conclusion: national decision-makers
434 views

Continue Reading People of the Whip