Global Anti-Money Laundering Regime and Pakistan

Raja Pervaiz Ahmed

Abstract
Many researchers point out to the fact that the criminals have been quicker to embrace the 21
century globally economy than the lawmakers. Money laundering, including terrorist
financing, has had far-reaching implications for Pakistan. This paper is aimed at finding out
what initiatives have been taken by international organizations and corporate governance
regimes on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT).
It further takes into account how Pakistan has responded so far in relation to the international
requirements. With reference to Pakistan, it also examines what legal, legislative, regulatory,
law-enforcement and institutional measures have been taken so far. Alongside, it attempts to
evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of the country’s anti-money laundering laws from
the perspective of professionals, both from the public and corporate sectors. There is a need
of an effective anti-money laundering regime in every country including Pakistan to counter
the menace of money laundering which has far-reaching socio-economic consequences.

Keywords: Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, Corporate Governance Regime, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Asia Pacific Group (APG), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities
and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)