Islamabad will strictly implement the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in order to get out of the money laundering grey list released by the Paris-based body, a senior official of Pakistan's Central Bank said on Wednesday.

FATF had previously placed Pakistan on its watch list of countries that need to do more in relation to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

"The FATF challenge has be to be addressed. Pakistan has mandated upon itself to enforce the FATF plan in letter and spirit. Whatever the requirements about the FATF plan are, they will be imposed and Pakistan will be out of grey list by September 2019. FATF is a risk but we are addressing it in the right letter and spirt," said Syed Irfan Ali, executive director for Banking Policy and Regulation Group at the State Bank of Pakistan.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, on Monday said that the South Asian country could suffer $10 billion in losses annually if it remains in the terror financing watchdog's grey list. "The Foreign office in Islamabad is calculating the annual losses if Pakistan is blacklisted by the FATF as India is lobbying for this," Qureshi said.

The FATF is an inter-governmental organisation comprising of 35 members, and its recommendations are considered to be the international standard for steps required for anti-money laundering and combating terror financing.

Syed Irfan Ali was speaking on the eve of the second Pakistan Remittance Summit held in Dubai on Wednesday. Earlier, Pakistan's ambassador to the UAE, Moazzam Ahmad Khan, and senior banking officials of the National Bank of Pakistan, UBL, and other exchange houses addressed the conference.

Ali called on Pakistani banks to focus on blue-collar workers and to provide them with good facilities, as many are unaware of their rights. "Blue-collar workers should be the focus of the banks and be given maximum rights and benefits. Professionals and businessmen know their rights, but blue-collar workers don't have enough information and have families to feed back home."

Analysts expect Pakistan's remittances to reach $22 billion during the 2018-19 fiscal year, from the $19.62 billion received in the 2017-18 period.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com