Turkey avoids money-laundering and terror financing blacklist by last minute law.

Turkey avoids money-laundering and terror financing blacklist by last minute law.(Taz).

The Financial Action Task Force said late Friday that Turkish legislation signed 10 days ago into law spared Ankara from its blacklist.

Turkey’s national assembly passed a bill on preventing the financing of terrorism earlier this month, and it was signed into law on Feb. 15.

The FATF said Friday the law addressed many of the shortcomings it identified in Ankara’s criminal code for terrorism financing, as well as creating a legal basis for freezing terrorist assets.

“The FATF welcomes this significant step made by Turkey, which improves the country’s compliance with the international standards,” the body said in a statement.

Had Turkey not passed the law by Friday, the FATF said back in October when it last met, Ankara would be suspended by the body, which recommends ways to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Despite Turkey’s new law, the FATF said “there still remains a number of ongoing shortcomings” in its counter-terrorist financing regime, which Ankara “must address” to “reach a satisfactory level of compliance with the FATF standards.”

FATF said in a public statement on Friday that Turkey needs to address "strategic deficiencies" in its legal framework to be removed from the 'dark grey' list.Hmmmm.....Passsing a law to avoid blacklisting, doesn't mean they're planning to enforce it.......especially in TurkeyMore here.