The Gibraltar Government has announced its intention to denounce to the OECD, the IMF and the EU 'false statements about Gibraltar’s finance centre' attributed to officials in the Spanish Government in an article carried by El Pais newspaper.
The government made the announcement in a statement dated March 17th, which attempted to refute
the allegations put forward in the report, published on Sunday.
The report, supposedly inspired by the Spanish government,
effectively accused Gibraltar of helping to facilitate money laundering and
tax evasion through its apparent reticence in dealing with Spanish requests
for assistance in fraud and fiscal investigations.
But according to Gibraltar's authorities, the article was "based on a web of untruths and fabrications," and allegedly masked the fact that Spain's record on transparency issues leaves something to be desired.
"The actual truth is that Gibraltar has a much better record in relation
to regulation of financial services than Spain, as measured by almost every
independent international organisation. The latest, very positive IMF Report
on Gibraltar demonstrates the untruth of this unwarranted and false assault
on our finance centre. The reality is the very opposite to the picture painted
in the Article," the government argued.
The statement went on to argue that:
"Gibraltar’s finance centre complies, to a much greater extent
than Spain’s, with EU laws and obligations. The statement that Gibraltar’s
Finance Centre does not meet EU standards and requirements is simply false."
"Indeed, Spain has still not implemented the EU Third Money Laundering directive,
which was due by December 2007 and which Gibraltar has implemented. It is thus
Spain that appears to be in default of her EU obligations on money laundering."
"The statement that lawyers and others in the finance centre are outside
the regulatory net of financial services is also untrue and fabrication."
"The report says that Gibraltar does not comply with FATF (Grupo de Accion
Financiera International) recommendations. This is completely false. Unlike
Spain, Gibraltar has complied with practically all of the FATF’s latest
recommendations (the original 40 plus the 9 new ones)– one of the few
finance centres to do so. Indeed, this was one of the positive findings of the
IMF Report on Gibraltar. Again, Gibraltar’s performance in respect of
FATF recommendations exceeds Spain’s."
According to the Spanish report, the government of Spain will ask the OECD
to place Gibraltar on its 'blacklist' of uncooperative tax havens because of
the alleged reluctance to share information with Spain's authorities.
However, Gibraltar
contends that it has never received a request by Spain to enter into any exchange
of information agreement as envisaged in the OECD information exchange initiative,
to which Gibraltar says it is committed.
"It is therefore plainly absurd for Spain to suggest that we are non-co-operative
in terms of the OECD initiative. This inescapable fact demonstrates the bad
faith of these statements," the Gibraltar response continued.
It added:
"The statement that Gibraltar refuses to provide information, and has not
provided information to Spanish authorities through the various legal mechanisms
that exist is simply untrue. The Gibraltar Government finds that assertion staggering
and deeply disappointing. Those requests that fail do so because Spanish authorities
fail to comply with international legal requirements or to bring their requests
within the applicable legal framework."
"What is true is that when the Gibraltar Government has sought meetings
with Spanish Finance Ministry officials in relation to such matters, Spain’s
Finance Ministry has refused to meet with Gibraltar officials."
"The report says that the presence of these issues on the agenda of the
Trilateral Forum reflects Spanish dissatisfaction. This is also false. It should
be clearly understood that the issues of co-operation in matters of financial
services and tax, and police and judicial co-operation, have been placed on
the agenda by and at the request of Gibraltar, and not Spain."
Commenting further on the matter, a Gibraltar Government spokesman observed that:
“This Article in El Pais is clearly inspired by official Spanish Finance
Ministry sources. The allegations made in the Article are false and the facts
in it are almost all entirely untrue. We find this deeply troubling."
"It is a
peculiar way to seek to increase co-operation between Gibraltar and Spain on
such matters. This is not the way to seek or to obtain Gibraltar’s goodwill
and continued co-operation."
"Despite these unacceptable and reprehensible statements the Gibraltar
Government will remain willing to proceed with this agenda within the Trilateral
Forum. It is a measure of the nonsense of these Statements that they measure
alleged non compliance by reference to the number of Banks, lawyers and companies
in Gibraltar. Gibraltar’s finance centre will continue to grow within
the quality, compliant and high regulatory standards that the Government has
marked out for it since 1996. This growth will be reflected in still more private
client business, more banks, more insurance companies, more brokers and more
funds business."
The spokesman concluded that:
"People in Spain have got to understand the difference between money laundering,
and a successful, growing, reputable and well regulated international finance
centre. The Government similarly rejects and regrets the comments on the matter."
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