India hailed for anti-money laundering efforts at Eurasian Group meet

India was lauded for its efforts to implement measures against money laundering and terror financing on the first day of the 41st plenary meeting of Eurasian Group (EAG), which began in Madhya Pradesh's Indore on Monday, an official said. During the five-day meeting, nine member countries, including India, will deliberate and chart out a road map to deal with the growing challenges of cybercrimes, money laundering and financing of terrorism, the official said.

"In the first session of the meeting, representatives from member countries hailed India for getting the highest rating of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," said Vivek Agrawal, additional secretary, revenue department of the Ministry of Finance, who is representing India at the meet.

He said the FATF placed India in the category of "regular follow-up", the highest rating given by the independent inter-governmental body after assessing the country's efforts to implement measures to combat illegal activities such as money laundering and terror financing.


Talking to reporters, Agrawal said that in the upcoming sessions of the meeting, member countries will discuss issues such as money laundering, illegal transactions of money, terrorism financing and cybercrimes and their solutions.

He said representatives of the "fintech" industry will also discuss the financial products that can trigger crime during one of the sessions.

They will also ponder on legal ways to combat crimes and training law enforcers will need, he said.

Agrawal said that based on the discussions held for three days, member countries will adopt a resolution during the plenary session of the meeting.

Public representatives, including Indore Lok Sabha MP Shankar Lalwani, state Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava and district magistrate Ashish Singh participated in the welcome session of the meet.

Lok Sabha MP Lalwani said there was a need for better coordination at the international level to deal with the growing challenges of cybercrimes, money laundering and terror financing, and a joint investigation team should be formed.

More than 200 representatives from member countries, India, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are participating in the event.