FATF places Turkey on grey list for failing to check terror financing
Oct 21, 2021
Paris [France], October 21 : Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday placed Turkey on its grey list for failing to check terror financing.
"Turkey had a mutual evaluation, assessment in late 2019. The report outlined a large number of serious issues regarding Turkey's effort to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Since then, Turkey has made some progress across all areas of concern, however, serious issues remain," said FATF president Dr Marcus Pleyer.
"This includes issues concerning supervision, in particular high-risk sectors such as banks, precious stone dealers, and real estate agents," said Pleyer.
Three countries were added to the grey list: Jordan, Mali and Turkey.
He also took notice of Turkey's clampdown on non-profit organisations (NPOs).
"The FATF is aware of human rights groups' concerns about Turkey treatment of non-profit organisations (NPOs). Turkey needs to implement a truly risk-based approach to NPOs and ensure authorities don't disrupt or discourage legitimate activity," said Pleyer.
FATF president also advised Turkey to effectively tackle complex money-laundering cases.
"Turkey needs to show it is effectively tackling complex money-laundering cases and show it is pursuing terrorist financing prosecutions in line with its risks and prioritizing cases of UN-designated terrorist organisations such as ISIL and Al Qaeda," said Pleyer.
"It is crucial for Turkey to make sure that it effectively tackles money laundering and terrorist financing, serious organised crimes and corruption," added Pleyer.
He urged Turkey to turn its commitment to concrete action regarding money laundering and terror financing.
"The Turkish govt has given a high-level political commitment to continue to make necessary changes. I urge them to turn that commitment to concrete action," said Pleyer.
The move is a heavy blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its economy is fragile and has recorded heavy losses against the US dollar and it will curtail its power to raise international investment.
Meanwhile, Botswana and Mauritius were removed from the grey list. Both countries gave high-level commitment to implement reforms to improve their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finances.
