Pakistan among 50 worst terror financing countries, says Swiss study group

Islamabad, Sep 7 (IANS): Pakistan is among the 50 worst countries in terms of money laundering and terror financing, according to a study conducted by a Swiss group.

The study by Basel Institute on Governance ranked Pakistan at the 46th position in the list of 146 countries with greater chances of money laundering and terror financing, the News International reported on Thursday.

The group, which works with the public and private sector to counter corruption, released its annual Anti Money Laundering (AML) index 2017 in the third week of August and some of its findings were reported by international media.

The Basel AML Index measured the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing of countries based on publicly available sources, the report said.

The Basel AML Index 2017 gave Pakistan a score of 6.64. The other "worst" countries in the list were Iran (8.6), Afghanistan (8.38), Guinea-Bissau (8.35), Tajikistan (8.28), Laos (8.28), Mozambique (8.08), Mali (7.97), Uganda (7.95), Cambodia (7.94).

The best performance in effective monitoring of banking and all financial transactions, according to this study, was of Finland with a score of 3.04. Thus, Finland was at the bottom of the list and ranked at position 146. Other countries with best controls and monitoring of financial transactions after Finland were Lithuania (3.67), Estonia (3.83), Bulgaria (3.87), New Zealand (3.91), Slovenia (4.02) and Denmark (3.05).