Official: Iran Not to Give Financial Process Data to FATF

Iran will not provide information on its financial processes to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a senior official from the Economy Ministry said, outlining the country’s position on its long-standing dispute with the global watchdog.

Hadi Khani, head of Iran’s Financial Intelligence Unit at the ministry, said, “It has not been decided to give any information on the country’s financial processes to FATF,” IRNA reported. He added that FATF’s recommendation on financial transparency requires countries to improve their infrastructure, laws, regulations and processes to achieve transparency within their own systems.

“We are not dealing with an entity called FATF in this case, and there is no plan for financial, commercial, or monetary interactions with FATF,” Khani said. Instead, he described Iran’s FATF case as “management of a multi-layered architecture and a complex network of countries, regional and international institutions, and even specialized organizations, all of which have legislated FATF recommendations and are implementing them, while actively participating in updating those recommendations to serve their own interests.”

Iran has not held a formal platform in FATF regional groups and remains outside their structures, Khani noted, saying this had limited its role. About 28 countries currently have action plans with the task force, but Iran was placed on the blacklist after failing to complete its agreed corrective program on time, he added. That led FATF to call on all countries to impose restrictions on Iran and its nationals until shortcomings were resolved.

The secretary of the Supreme Council for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing emphasized that in FATF’s 35-year history, its recommendations and rules have been continuously updated with active participation of member states.

"For whatever reason, we in the country could not manage this challenge with internal consensus during the given time,” Khani added, attributing the main flaw to the fact that perhaps the FATF issue in the country was diverted from being a technical and legal matter to other dimensions.

Whereas, like many other countries, Iran should have created structures and teams, launched precise technical, legal, and expert discussions on FATF recommendations, identified opportunities and threats, made use of the opportunities and devised strategies for the threats, similar to all other countries that are engaged with FATF in this process, he suggested. - Iran Daily