The European Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday that it has updated its list of high -risk tax jurisdictions, which show serious shortcomings in their national regimes of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). This is informed by TASR.
Several new countries have been added to the previous list: Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, ivory and Venezuela coast. At the same time, some jurisdiction were eliminated from the list: Barbados, Philippines, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, Senegal, United Arab Emirates and Uganda.
The updated list of high -risk tax jurisdictions takes into account the work of the Intergovernmental Act Action Group (FATF), in particular its list of jurisdictions “under increased monitoring”.
The Commission as a founding member of the FATF is closely involved in the monitoring of progress in jurisdictions under scrutiny and helps them to fully implement their relevant action plans agreed with FATF. Aligning with FATF is important for maintaining EU commitment to support and implement global standards.
EU entities covered by the legal framework of the fight against money laundering is required that they apply increased vigilance to transactions relating to countries on this EU list. The Commission considers this important to protect the EU financial system.
In a press release, the Commission recalled that it has thoroughly considered concerns expressed in connection with its previous proposal and carried out a thorough technical assessment based on specific criteria and well -defined methodology, which included information collected through FATF, bilateral dialogues and visits to the appropriate jurisdictions.
The European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union Maria Luísová Albuquerqu in the media report specified that The identification and list of high -risk jurisdictions is a key tool for protecting the integrity of the EU financial system. At the same time, it expressed the hope that the European Parliament and the EU Council (Member States) will quickly support the update of this list. The EU Directive for the fight against money laundering (Amld) entrusts the European Commission with a regular update of the list of high -risk jurisdictions of third countries.
