Legal analysis of Qatar’santi-money laundering and combating terrorist financing legislation and regulation amidst the summer 2017 GCC crisis
Journal of Money Laundering Control
ISSN: 1368-5201
Article publication date: 3 February 2020
Issue publication date: 11 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The recent diplomatic split between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Qatar with accusations of terrorist financing (TF). This paper aims to study Qatar’s domestic legislations, which specifically targets money laundering and TF activities. The country has stringently worked in compliance with international standards on combating financing of terrorism (CFT) and anti-money laundering (AML) practices by imparting autonomous power to regulatory bodies, such as the Qatar Central Bank and other agencies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies independent legislations passed under the Emir’s decree over the past decade advancing Qatar’s AML ranking, with significant effort in CFT regulations. The paper also analyses the advancement in AML/CFT regulation and their validity with respect to international standards set by various governmental, intergovernmental and non-profit agencies.
Findings
The analysis finds Qatar in compliance with strong AML/CFT regulations. Further, it finds the government to have provided transparent oversight to international organizations that attest to the findings of the legislative efforts. This paper disproves claims and accusations that have possibly been presented to the GCC and subsequently led members to abruptly end diplomatic relations with Qatar over allegations of TF activities, amongst others.
Originality/value
The paper offers insight into Qatar’s legislative and regulatory advancement with respect to the AML/CTF in the past decade. The paper also discusses Qatar’s legislative advancement in relation to the evolutions of the country’s financial system, adopting a more robust mechanism to combat financing of terrorism and ML.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Please note that this paper was composed and submitted for review to this journal in July 2017 – All the content was current at that point in time (July 2017). The banking and regulation industries alongside governmental policy-making have evolved greatly since July 2017, with new material from academic research emerging. These points need to be taken into consideration when reading this paper. The author explicitly states that this research article is not a propaganda piece and in no way has the author received any form of funding or assistance from any party towards this piece of research. This paper sets out an approach to extend the discussion on the Gulf region from an independent academic perspective, employing tools that separate AML/CTF analysis from media opinion.
Citation
Naheem, M.A. (2020), "Legal analysis of Qatar’santi-money laundering and combating terrorist financing legislation and regulation amidst the summer 2017 GCC crisis", Journal of Money Laundering Control, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 793-804. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-09-2017-0054
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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