Pakistan ranked 46th in high terror financing risks; India at 88: Report
Amid major concerns over Pakistan allegedly sheltering multiple terror outfits, the country has now made its place among the top 50 countries with terrorism financing and money laundering risks. According to a recent report by a Swiss group, Pakistan has been placed at 46th position in the list which includes 146 countries. Among the South Asian countries, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka reportedly have the highest risk of financial threats, the report mentioned.
The survey was a part of the 2017 edition of the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) index by the Basel Institute of Governance and measures the vulnerability of countries to financial risks. As reported by Al Jazeera, an official statement by the Swiss group mentioned, “The Basel AML Index measures the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing of countries based on publicly available sources. As there are no quantitative data available, the Basel AML Index does not measure the actual existence of money laundering activity or amount of illicit financial money within a country but is designed to indicate the risk level, i.e. the vulnerabilities of money laundering and terrorist financing within a country.”
The average risk score by the 146 countries assessed by the non-profit competence centre equals to 6.15 this year. And while Pakistan had been given 6.64, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka scored 8.38, 7.57 and 7.15, to hold the second, 14th and 25th position respectively. The report further positioned India at the 88th position with a financial risk score of 5.58.
The countries figuring in the top of the list with the highest AML risks are Iran, Afghanistan, Guinea-Bissau, Tajikistan, Laos, Mozambique, Mali, Uganda, Cambodia and Tanzania. The report further mentions that the countries least vulnerable to financial crisis are Finland, Lithuania and Estonia. Iran topped the list with a risk score of 8.60 while Finland was mentioned as the safest with a risk score of 3.04.