India becomes full-fledged member of 'Financial Action Task Force'

New Delhi, June 29: India has become a full-fledged member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body, responsible for setting global standards on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT).

As a part of its membership, a joint FATF / Asia Pacific Group Mutual Evaluation Team visited India in November-December, 2009 for on-site assessment of India's compliance with the 40+9 Recommendations of FATF.

Mutual Evaluation Report on India and India's membership issues were discussed in the third meeting of FATF Plenary-XXI held in Amsterdam, Netherlands from June 23 to 25.

FATF Plenary adopted the Mutual Evaluation Report on India on June 24, and on June 25 admitted India as the 34th member of FATF.

Earlier, India had become observer at FATF in the year 2006. Since then, India has been working towards full-fledged membership of FATF.

FATF membership is very important for India in its quest to become a major player in the International finance.

It will help India to build the capacity to fight terrorism and trace terrorist money and to successfully investigate and prosecute money laundering and terrorist financing offences.

India will benefit in securing a more transparent and stable financial system by ensuring that financial institutions are not vulnerable to infiltration or abuse by organized crime groups.

The FATF process will also help us in co-ordination of AML/CFT efforts at the international level.