FATF Urges India to Strengthen Virtual Asset Regulation

India has achieved a high level of technical compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, addressing illicit finance, money laundering, and terrorist financing. In a joint assessment with regional bodies, the FATF praised India’s progress but pointed out areas needing improvement, especially in regulating the non-financial sector and virtual asset providers. The country was urged to adopt a risk-based approach to protect non-profits and address delays in financial crime prosecutions.

India Commended by FATF for Anti-Money Laundering Progress

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced on Thursday that India has reached “a high level of technical compliance across the FATF Recommendations and has taken significant steps to implement measures to tackle illicit finance,” following a joint assessment with the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and the Eurasian Group (EAG).

The report, presented in Paris, commended India’s advancements in combating financial crimes but highlighted the importance of further improvements. As India’s economy and financial system continue to expand, the FATF stressed the need to ensure that money laundering and terrorist financing cases are completed with appropriate sanctions and to adopt a risk-based approach to protect non-profit organizations from misuse in terrorist financing.

Despite strong progress in building an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) framework, some sectors remain in the early stages of development. The FATF detailed:

Implementation of preventative measures by the non-financial sector and virtual asset service providers, and supervision of those sectors, is at an early stage. India needs to improve implementation of cash restrictions by dealers in precious metals and stones as a priority given the materiality of the sector.

India’s financial authorities were praised for their coordination and international cooperation, yet the country must address delays in prosecutions. “India is placed in ‘regular follow-up’ and in line with procedures, will report back to the Plenary in three years,” FATF concluded.