FATF Extends Iran’s Deadline until October

It said on Friday that it was for now keeping counter-measures against Iran suspended with the exception for a call to all countries to increase supervisory examination of Iranian banks’ branches and subsidiaries, Reuters reported.

If by October Iran had not met international norms, the FATF said it would require scrutiny of transactions with Iran and tougher external audits of financial firms operating in Iran.

European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers have asked Iran to join the FATF before a new payment mechanism, officially called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), takes force.

Iranian critics of INSTEX say the Europeans have conditioned its implementation to Iran joining the FATF.

The FATF’s proponents have said the measure would smooth the path for Iran’s increased financial transactions with the rest of the world and help remove the country from investment blacklists.

Opponents, however, say membership in the FATF will only make the country vulnerable to outside meddling.