Majlis and its Economic Commission will decide about details of Iran’s agreement with the Financial Action Task Force, said Ammer Kabi, a member of the commission.
“Iran’s commitments to combat money laundering and finance terrorism needs to be in line with domestic laws and must be approved by the parliament,” he was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.
In June the FATF (an international body that monitors money laundering) suspended its counter-measures against Iran for 12 months in order to monitor Tehran’s progress in implementing its action plan in AML and CTF (anti-money Laundering and counter-terrorism financing).
“If Iran fails to improve its record as promised, the FATF call for vigorous counter-measures will be reinstated. If there is improvement, the task force will consider further positive steps,” the Paris-based anti-money laundering body said in a statement.
Iran had taken a meaningful stride toward upgrading its banking and financial laws and bringing them closer to international norms with the Guardians Council ratifying a long-pending bill in March to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Referring to a recent meeting between Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia and representatives of FATF, Kabi said the economy minister made no pledges to the world’s anti-money laundering body about steps to combat financing of terrorism.
Tayyebnia had said earlier that the country will follow up on countering terrorism financing and money laundering within the framework of the country’s Constitution and based on its own criteria.
The lawmaker added that no written report has been handed to the parliament. “So far, all elaborations have been oral.”
Officials from the Central Bank of Iran met with the parliamentary Economic Commission last week, to elaborate on Iran’s agreement with FATF. However, Ali Akbar Karimi, a member of the commission said “the CBI explanations did not convince the lawmakers” about the future course of CBI-FATF collaboration.
“The central bank did not provide us with details of the deal,” he complained.
Rahim Zare, a lawmaker, also called for the CBI to provide the legislature with more documents, so that the parliament could take a better decision about the issue.
“Wrong decisions could intensify [outside] pressures on the country,” he was quoted as saying.
