Turkey's Economic Revival: Removed from FATF Grey List

Turkey has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, marking significant progress in anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing. This decision is expected to boost investor confidence in Turkey's financial system. The lira remained little changed at 32.9340 against the dollar following the announcement.

The international crime watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Turkey from its "grey list" of countries that require special scrutiny on Friday, in a boost to the country's economic turnaround plan. Turkey was downgraded to the "grey list" in 2021 on concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing. The latest move came after an FATF team held meetings with Turkish authorities to assess progress in addressing those concerns.

Turkey has made "significant progress" in improving its regime of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, and is "no longer subject to the FATF's increased monitoring process", the Paris-based body said in a statement. "With this development, international investors' confidence in our country's financial system has become even stronger," Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on the social media platform X.

"The decision will have extremely positive consequences for both our financial sector and our real sector," he said. There was little immediate sign of a market reaction to the move, which was widely expected. The lira was slightly weaker at 32.9340 against the dollar.

There are about two dozen nations that are on the grey list and considered risky by the FATF, a body that groups countries from the United States to China to tackle financial crime. In February, it removed the United Arab Emirates from the list. The FATF said in February that Turkey "has substantially completed its action plan" and warranted an on-site assessment. It held talks in Turkey last month to evaluate the country's actions against money laundering and illegal financing.

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