FATF Decision Not to Affect Iran’s Foreign Trade: Top Banker
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdonnaser Hemmati deplored a decision by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to blacklist the Islamic Republic, saying the move would have no effect on the country’s foreign trade.
“Once again, the hostility of the US and the Quds-occupying regime toward the Iranian people has shown itself in the form of opposition to FATF Experts’ advice on the steps that Iran has taken to fulfill its commitments to combat the financing of terrorism and money laundering,” Hemmati said in a post on social media on Friday.
“This political and non-technical behavior has been going on since summer 2016 up to now,” the top banker added.
“The performance of the CBI over the past year has given confidence to dear people that such incidents will not create a problem for Iran’s foreign trade and the stability of the (foreign) exchange rate,” Hemmati stressed.
The FATF voted on Friday to keep Iran on its blacklist for failing to comply with international anti-terrorism financing norms, according to media reports.
Last October, Iran’s parliament approved four bills put forward by the government to meet standards set by the FATF.
Only two of them have so far gone into effect and the fate of the two others, one on Iran’s accession to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the other one a bill amending Iran’s Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) law, is still in limbo.
FATF’s proponents have said the measure would smooth the path for Iran’s increased financial transactions with the rest of the world and help remove the country from investment blacklists.
Opponents, however, say membership in the FATF will only make the country vulnerable to outside meddling.
They say Iran’s implementation of FATF standards so far has not only failed to attract investment, but it has also exposed various institutions to extraterritorial regulations and penalties.
The FATF cannot impose sanctions, but individual states that are its members have used the group's reports to take punitive measures against their adversaries. As a result, Iran has been targeted by US and European sanctions.
Iran has already been implementing a domestic anti-money laundering law as part of its efforts toward financial transparency. Additionally, it has long been combating terror financing.
