Alsumaria News – Local
The Office of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in Iraq announced that the country is far from being included in the Grey List of Money Laundering, after the establishment of updated, comprehensive and confidential databases that meet international requirements.
The representative of the office to the Central Bank, Hussein Al-Maqrim, reported the completion of the mutual international assessment by the international expert group to which Iraq recently underwent, which lasted for 14 months, with the aim of assessing the technical compliance with the legal framework, regulations, instructions and controls to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
In an interview with the media, Muqren explained that “the international expert group worked to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing systems, by providing statistics, in addition to practical cases, to prove the application of the legislative framework, as well as the field visit.”
He added that “the evaluation report was discussed and approved by the Middle East and North Africa Financial Working Group (MENAFATF) last May,” noting that “the preliminary results confirmed the departure of the Republic of Iraq from inclusion in the gray list, and an action plan and recommendations were drafted by international residents, to ensure compliance with international standards.”
Controversy over the gray list
The Office for Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in Iraq, which was established as a public department within the departments of the Central Bank of Iraq, supervises and follows up with all concerned authorities, to implement the strategic objectives of combating money laundering and terrorist financing for the years 2023 – 2027, and enjoys moral personality and financial and administrative independence.
The evaluation conducted by the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) addressed technical compliance with legal elements, regulations and instructions related to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, in addition to the effectiveness of the systems by providing statistics and practical cases, which indicated an improvement in the application of the legislative framework.
The announcement of the exclusion of Iraq from the list of developed countries in money laundering operations has sparked controversy among Iraqi financial and economic specialists, while the non-inclusion of Iraq on the gray list is considered “positive.”
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