Şimşek expected to attend FATF meeting later this month

ISTANBUL

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is expected to attend a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting to be held in Singapore later this month, officials have said.

At the FATF plenary and working group meeting in Singapore on June 28, Türkiye is expected to be removed from its gray list.

The Paris-based global money-laundering watchdog added Türkiye to the list in 2021.

Türkiye has been taking steps to be dropped from the list. Last month, the parliament’s planning and budget commission approved a bill aimed at regulating the crypto assets sector in the country.

The draft law, which requires crypto asset service providers to obtain licenses from the Capital Markets Board, is expected to help Türkiye to be removed from the gray list.

Following a meeting in February this year in Paris, FATF said that it had made the initial determination that Türkiye has substantially completed its action plan.

“The necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future,” the task force said in a statement.

In comments he made in February, Şimşek voiced confidence that Türkiye successfully completed technical studies to be removed from the gray list.

Meanwhile, the on-site assessment to verify the implementation of reforms was concluded last week.

During this visit by FATF officials significant progress was made, Turkish officials told daily Hürriyet. “This progress means Türkiye is likely to be removed from the gray list,” they said.

The removal of Türkiye from the list is likely to give further momentum to capital inflows, which have accelerated recently after the country’s Credit Default Swaps (CDS) has fallen, investors’ confidence in the policies implemented by the economy team and the Central Bank has increased and the upgrades in the country’s credit ratings.