Liechtenstein Meets FATF Deadline

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

09 August 2001

It seems that Liechtenstein's optimism was justified, as despite the panic of the last couple of months, the Department for Financial Services was able to meet the August 1st deadline set by the Financial Action Task Force as a condition of the country's removal from the blacklist of countries considered to be uncooperative in the international fight against money laundering.

Liechtenstein had promised to provide at least half of all the data relating to economically authorised persons in the principality, including client profiles, by the beginning of this month in order to prove that it sincerely intended to implement the new laws it had enacted regarding duty of care. Although Liechtenstein trustees and members of the Banking Association were confident that this could be achieved, there were fears that the deadline which they had set themselves was too tight, and the government itself exerted pressure on the trustees, frightened that failure would result in Liechtenstein being re-listed. However, in the event, the required data was remitted by 52% of the nation's trustees.

In the run-up to the FATF's June update, some critics referred to Liechtenstein's efforts as 'window dressing', and expressed doubts that it would secure removal from the blacklist. However, Prime Minister Otmar Hasler was seemingly always confident that the prospect of removal was good, and speaking on Luxembourg radio last week, praised the 'enormous efforts' which had been made by the financial services sector both before and after the FATF announcement.

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