Out of the grey list, still in the grey!

If you have tried to receive money from a foreign country or tried sending some money abroad, you might be familiar with the bureaucratic obstacle course that the banks make you do. Why do they do that? Why are big investment and commercial banks afraid to come to Pakistan? Is Pakistan not a big enough market for them? Does Pakistan not have enough potential for business from these countries and companies? While the answers to this “why” may be debatable, one of the biggest reasons that Pakistanis have to hula hoop through the procedural steps of enhanced due diligence, and that Pakistan doesn’t get the due amount of foreign investment is attributed to Pakistan’s placement on the FATF grey list.

If you know what the FATF is, and what they go about doing around the world, feel free to skip the next two headings. If you don’t? Hang in there!