India Pushes for FATF Transparency in Cross-Border Payments
By Rediff Money Desk, New Delhi Sep 10, 2024 17:59
India advocates for increased transparency in cross-border payments, urging FATF to require fintechs, credit card companies and payment aggregators to share sender and recipient information for law enforcement.
New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) India is pitching for greater disclosures by fintech firms, credit card companies and payment aggregators (PAs) at the Financial Action Task Force whereby the sender and recipient in a cross-border financial transaction can be identified and shared with law enforcement agencies as and when sought.
Currently, the Travel Rules of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) under which data relating to name of sender and recipient and the country of origin is recorded in any cross-border financial transactions.
The policy development group (PDG) of the FATF is now deliberating on whether the required information is clearly available to law enforcement agencies or does the information gets masked in any form. Masking of information leads to delay in information sharing by financial institutions involved in cross-border transactions with law enforcement agencies.
"The debate is whether the standards need to be tweaked further so that information can be clearly provided in case of cross-border wire transfers by using credit cards, or payment aggregators or fintech platform," an official source said.
At the PDG of the FATF, India is pitching for greater disclosure norms and transparency without hurting the industry, the source added.
Sources said the main concern of credit cards, payment aggregators or fintech platform is the cost involved and the software changes required to implement the proposal.
The official source further said that in case of domestic fund transfer, all the required information is readily available, but the issue arises in case of cross-border transactions.
The PDG at the FATF is looking at what is the "identifiable information" and what all data relating to fund transfers should be made available by countries.
Once it is approved by global financial crime watchdog FATF, all member countries would be implementing such disclosure norms within 2-3 years, sources added.
At the time of the mutual evaluation by the FATF, member countries will have to inform the FATF that the systems and rules are in place which allow all identifiable information to be accessed by law enforcement agencies.
The FATF's fourth round of mutual evaluation for India happened in November 2023. The report of this round would be released on September 18.
The fifth round of evaluation is slated sometime in 2031-32 fiscal.
Currently, the Travel Rules of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) under which data relating to name of sender and recipient and the country of origin is recorded in any cross-border financial transactions.
The policy development group (PDG) of the FATF is now deliberating on whether the required information is clearly available to law enforcement agencies or does the information gets masked in any form. Masking of information leads to delay in information sharing by financial institutions involved in cross-border transactions with law enforcement agencies.
"The debate is whether the standards need to be tweaked further so that information can be clearly provided in case of cross-border wire transfers by using credit cards, or payment aggregators or fintech platform," an official source said.
At the PDG of the FATF, India is pitching for greater disclosure norms and transparency without hurting the industry, the source added.
Sources said the main concern of credit cards, payment aggregators or fintech platform is the cost involved and the software changes required to implement the proposal.
The official source further said that in case of domestic fund transfer, all the required information is readily available, but the issue arises in case of cross-border transactions.
The PDG at the FATF is looking at what is the "identifiable information" and what all data relating to fund transfers should be made available by countries.
Once it is approved by global financial crime watchdog FATF, all member countries would be implementing such disclosure norms within 2-3 years, sources added.
At the time of the mutual evaluation by the FATF, member countries will have to inform the FATF that the systems and rules are in place which allow all identifiable information to be accessed by law enforcement agencies.
The FATF's fourth round of mutual evaluation for India happened in November 2023. The report of this round would be released on September 18.
The fifth round of evaluation is slated sometime in 2031-32 fiscal.
Source: PTI
Read More On:
DISCLAIMER - This article is from a syndicated feed. The original source is responsible for accuracy, views & content ownership. Views expressed may not reflect those of rediff.com India Limited.
You May Like To Read
TODAY'S MOST TRADED COMPANIES
- Company Name
- Price
- Volume
- Vodafone Idea L
- 9.80 ( -0.71)
- 44492337
- G V Films
- 0.94 (+ 9.30)
- 37404318
- Jaiprakash Power Ven
- 19.44 ( -3.38)
- 30530141
- Spicejet Ltd.
- 62.79 ( -4.25)
- 22824171
- Srestha Finvest
- 0.89 (+ 4.71)
- 21696619
MORE NEWS
World Bank Considers G20 MDB Reforms: FM
India's Finance Minister commends the World Bank's consideration of 27 out of 30...
India's Maritime Heritage: Sonowal Meets...
Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal met with archaeologists, museologists, and historians...
India Boosts Fintech Support to Bhutan - UPI,...
India pledges further fintech support to Bhutan as UPI and RuPay cards gain popularity...