FATF Lauds India's Combat Against Money Laundering, Calls for Stronger Prosecution

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) commended India's efforts in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, citing several sources of information, particularly open-source inputs. However, the FATF urges India to enhance prosecution efforts. The body also noted significant resource improvements for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and projected a need for further increase.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has praised India's ongoing battle against money laundering and terrorist financing, highlighting the country's use of various open-source platforms to identify potential cases. The FATF urged India to bolster its prosecution processes to ensure more robust enforcement of financial crimes.

According to the FATF's latest mutual evaluation report, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) primarily relies on information from the general public, media reports, and social media comments to identify potential money laundering activities. The report disclosed that ED's investigations have steadily increased each year, thanks to improved input from these sources.

The FATF stressed the need for further resource allocation for the ED, noting that its manpower has already increased by nearly 50% since 2018. The report projected a further three-fold increase in resources over the next five years to tackle the growing volume and complexity of money laundering investigations.

(With inputs from agencies.)