Removal from FATF grey list to accelerate inflow of resources to Türkiye, says finance minister

By Zeynep Duyar

The removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) grey list will accelerate the inflow of resources to Türkiye, the country’s treasury and finance minister said on Monday.

Mehmet Simsek said on a TV program, "It may accelerate. But I want to underline this, the inflow of resources to the country is already very strong… we are currently dealing with how to manage this inflow of resources."

According to the figures announced last week, gross reserves have already reached a historical high of approximately $147-148 billion, the minister stressed.

Türkiye, which entered the grey list in Oct. 2019, where countries with deficiencies in money laundering and terrorist financing are monitored, is no longer on the list as of last week.

Regarding Türkiye's exit from the grey list, Simsek added: "It is easy to enter the grey list, but it is difficult to get out. There are countries like Bulgaria and Croatia that are members of the EU but are still on the list."

Explaining that he held meetings with Turkish ministers of justice, interior and foreign affairs with the support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the finance minister said their main goal was to demonstrate Türkiye’s prestige, the healthy functioning of financial markets and the reliability of the system.

He said the decision to remove Türkiye from the list was unanimous, and even not a single country objected, adding: "When I entered there before the meeting, many country representatives came and expressed their encouragement. Even the representative of our neighbor Greece said: 'We strongly support you’."

He stressed that Türkiye will significantly strengthen the administrative and technical capacity of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board.

"We live in a risky geography. Anyone can try to abuse our system. We will continue on our way with a risk-oriented model against this. We will put artificial intelligence into use at this point." he added.

*Writing by Sahika Olgun