Prez concerned over possibility of FATF blacklisting Nepal

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: President Ram Baran Yadav has expressed serious concern over the possibility of Nepal being blacklisted by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), a global body that oversees money laundering issues, for not endorsing three bills related to money laundering.



President Yadav expressed his worry over the issue during a meeting with Speaker Subas Nembang at the former´s office at Shital Niwas Friday afternoon.[break]



As per the government´s commitment in international forums, parliament is supposed to endorse three bills -- bill on mutual legal assistance, bill on amendment to laws related to extradition and another bill on eradication of organized crime -- by February 13.



“The president expressed his concern over the issue. I informed him that the parliament secretariat is preparing to endorse the bills by the February 13 deadline,” Nembang told Republica.



Though the bills were registered in the past, the government returned them and registered them again at the parliament secretariat on Wednesday. As the bills will mature only on February 13, the parliament meeting that has been called for the same day will require suspending a parliamentary procedure due to lack of time.



“We will not be able to give 72 hours to lawmakers for registering amendment to the bills and we need to shorten the timeline to around one hour because we will have to endorse the bills the same day,” said an official at the parliament secretariat.



Although parliament amended some of the bills related to the money laundering act in June last year as per FATF requirements, the global body is still pressing the government to endorse the other three bills.



Stating that Nepal´s legal arrangements to check terrorist financing and organized crime are still incomplete, the International Cooperation Review Group of FATF has said it will list Nepal in the high-risk category if the bills are not endorsed by the next week, said officials at Nepal Rastra Bank.



After placing any country in the high-risk category, FATF tells member states to remain alert while doing any business in that country, and it instructs them to stop doing business with any country in the negative list.



FATF suggests to its member countries to formulate laws on mutual legal assistance with a view to stopping terrorist financing and controlling international organized crime. After adopting mutual legal assistance, member countries can share information and evidence about any crime taking place in any of the member states.

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