FATF and the checkmate situation of the Iranian regime
The checkmate situation of the Iranian regime The Financial Action Task Force, the world’s de facto standards body on money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism, issued a stark warning to the Iranian regime last week. “If by June 2019, Iran does not enact the remaining legislation in line with FATF Standards, then the FATF will require increased supervisory examination for branches and subsidiaries of financial institutions based in Iran. The FATF also expects Iran to continue to progress with enabling regulations and other amendments,” FATF’s public statement from February 22 reads. And so, the already controversial remaining FATF bills have entered new levels of inner quarrels between the ruling elite. Behzad Nabavi, former deputy speaker of the Majlis (parliament) and one of the iconic figures of the so-called reformist camp, warns rival conservatives about the consequences of not passing the FATF bills into law and says: “Not passing FATF will bring the...