Iran’s Stance among Three Approaches to FATF Action Plans

The Financial Action Task Force is a young international body with rather few member-states. However, it is quite influential and determinative in international relations, global economy and even peace process in different areas. FATF Recommendations have been approved and supported by UN resolutions and other documents issued by the United Na-tions General Assembly and Security Council. Consequently, they have been adopted by most jurisdictions and incorporated in their domestic laws and regulations. This paper tries to have a brief description of FATF methodology in evaluating how different jurisdictions comply with the Recommendations. Example are also presented about what techniques FATF assessors use to appraise the effectiveness of implementation of the Recommenda-tions in practice. Before dealing with Iran’s interaction with FATF, the approaches taken by a couple of other countries is looked upon. Among all countries which have been the sub-ject of the Group's in periodical Public Statements and also statements about “High-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions”, two cases besides Iran have been selected for a comparative study of their interactions with the Group. Considering different practical approaches in compliance with the Recommendations, the article tries to first have a look at the path taken by Turkey in drastically improving its status in AML/CFT ranking in FATF reports. Then, the case of the North Korea is studied briefly. Finally, in the light of the findings and the economic, legal and political concerns of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the possibility of reaching a reconciliation between this country and FATF is deliberated.