President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday if the Expediency Council fails to ratify the remaining two anti-money laundering bills, Iran’s banking relations with the outside world would be imperiled.
Underscoring the need for normalcy in banking relations with other nations, Rouhani said maintaining such ties is not possible if the two pending bills are not approved and signed into law.
“We don’t want to be deprived of bigger benefits at the expense of trivial issues,” Rouhani said during the weekly Cabinet meeting, IRNA reported.
EC is the arbitration body that settles disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council - a body comprising 12 members that oversees legislation to ensure it complies with the Constitution and Sharia laws.
The government has been struggling to adapt to global norms guiding anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism rules after Tehran accepted an ‘Action Plan’ presented by the Financial Action Task Force.
Iran is under pressure to find new ways to maintain its fragile connection to the international financial system as US sanctions bite and the Trump administration imposes tougher restrictions on Iranian oil exports.
The FATF has asked Iran to ratify Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Palermo bills as part of the requirements to rejoin the global anti-money laundering watchdog.
The Paris-based organization has called on Iran to update and finalize its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules or face increased international scrutiny of its banks later this month.
Tehran has already signed into law two of the relevant bills that update and amend existing legislation on terror financing and money laundering.
No More Gov’t Responsibility
Addressing the nation, he said his government would not be responsible for future predicaments related to overseas banking relations because it wrote the bills and sent it to the Majlis on time.
“The people have expectations and all bodies in charge should make the necessary efforts,” he stressed.
Despite the fact that the Majlis approved the remaining two controversial bills, the Guardian Council rejected it. The EC has been discussing it for months without any results.
On Sunday, a joint commission within the EC revisited the remaining bills barely a week before the FATF votes on either stopping or extending the suspension of countermeasures against Iran.
Back in February, the powerful anti-money laundering body said it had extended the suspension of countermeasures against Iran for another four months, recognizing Tehran’s untiring efforts in meeting its Action Plan.
The watchdog body, however, warned that if by this month (June) Iran does not enact the remaining legislation in line with FATF standards, the FATF will demand stringent oversight of branches and subsidiaries of financial institutions in Iran.
The FATF is currently in a middle of a six-day (16-21 June 2019) plenary meeting attended by representatives from the 205 members of the FATF Global Network, the IMF, UN, World Bank in Orlando, Florida.
The “progress by Iran and other countries that present a risk to the financial system” has been mentioned in its official website as one of the topics on the agenda.
