Liechtenstein FIU Releases Annual Report

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

18 March 2008

Liechtenstein's Financial Intelligence Unit, the jurisdiction's reporting office for combating money laundering, organized crime, and terrorist financing, has presented its annual report, which claims that the establishment of preventive measures to combat criminal acts in the Liechtenstein financial centre has borne fruit.

According to the report, a total of 205 suspicious activity reports (SARs) were submitted under the Due Diligence Act in 2007. There were 52 cases more than in the previous year, representing an increase of more than 25% in the area of due diligence. The increase in SARs is in part due to the stronger monitoring of ongoing business relationships in certain areas, the report suggested.

Nearly 95% of the SARs in 2007 were triggered by banks and professional trustees. 12 of the 15 banks operating in Liechtenstein submitted one or more SARs.

Far more than half of all reports (131) were made pursuant to internal compliance obligations of the financial intermediaries. Requests for international legal assistance triggered 47 reports, and independent domestic proceedings triggered another 27.

Commenting at the presentation of the FIU annual report 2007, René Brülhart, Director of the FIU, stated that: "The trend of the last two years in internal compliance shows that implementation of the defensive measures has been successful."

"The measures taken to monitor ongoing client relationships have had an especially positive impact," Brülhart added. "The number of SARs and the high number of evaluation talks are a sign of the robust fight against abuse, serving as a basis for further qualitative improvement."

The FIU claims to have further intensified its work on international cooperation and networking in 2007.

In addition to performing a wide range of expert activities for several international organizations, the FIU sponsored a working meeting of the Egmont Group – the worldwide association of national money-laundering reporting offices – in Vaduz for the first time in spring 2007.

At this event, about 120 participants from approximately 50 countries met in working groups to discuss implementation and further development of information exchange among financial intelligence units.

The FIU also actively supported India in its establishment of a financial intelligence unit and its accession to the Egmont Group, which was accomplished successfully in summer 2007.

"These activities carried out by the FIU are an active contribution by Liechtenstein to the worldwide efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing," the Unit stated.

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