MNA – Iran’s Guardian Council has rejected an amendment bill on combating money laundering as part of standards set by the FATF, according to the Council's spokesman on Friday.







Spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, said in a tweet on Friday night that the Council has rejected an amendment bill on combating money laundering. The bill is part of the four bills proposed by the world’s financial watchdog aimed at removing Iran from FATF’s ‘greylist’ and facilitating the country’s economic transactions with the world.

According to Kadkhodaei, the Guardian Council has recognized four paragraphs of the amendment bill on combating money laundering as inconsistent with the country’s Constitution and Sharia laws, and as such, has returned the bill to the Parliament for making the required amendments.

Iran has less than two months to adopt financial reforms proposed by the Financial Action Task Force as part of efforts to improve connections to the international banking and trade system.

So far, the country has approved the amendment bill on combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), while the fate of the three other bills, including the amendment bill on combating money laundering, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo), and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, is still undecided.

While FATF does not have the authority to impose sanctions, a country blacklisted by the world’s financial watchdog will face severe pressure in its financial dealings with other countries.