06/14/2008
GRECO report on Switzerland
The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published recently its Joint First and Second Round Evaluation Report on Switzerland (link to the report). The report is made public with the agreement of the country’s authorities.
GRECO has issued 13 recommendations, in total, to Switzerland in the above-mentioned areas. Measures taken to implement these recommendations will be addressed by GRECO in the context of a specific compliance procedure in the second half of 2009.
Read press release
Read Report
11:05 Posted in Switzerland | Permalink | Comments (0)
06/10/2008
Anti-money laundering: Commission takes measures against 15 Member States for non timely implementation
The European Commission has decided to pursue infringement procedures against 15 Member States for failure to implement the Third Anti-Money Laundering Directive in national law. The Commission will send formal requests to Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Slovakia. These formal requests take the form of "reasoned opinions", the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. The Directive should have been implemented by 15 December 2007.
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07:02 Posted in General | Permalink | Comments (0)
05/31/2008
Fewer declarations of suspicion in Luxembourg than last year
The Minister of Justice in Luxembourg recently published the Annual Report 2007.
There are a couple of pages relating to AML (pages 136 to 140).
As I already wrote, the FIU in Luxembourg is the prosecuting authorities and does do a good job that limit the risk of scandal in a lax business environment where issues are hidden or hushed up.
If the number of declarations of suspicion in Switzerland increased, this is not the case in Luxembourg despite the center is growing.
Year Number Percentage
1998 114 2,08
1999 109 1,99
2000 158 2,88
2001 413 7,54
2002 631 15,11
2003 828 15,11
2004 943 17,20
2005 831 15,16
2006 754 13,76
2007 700 12,77
Total 5481 100
To assess the lax environment one must take into account the financial power of the Center and not the size of the country.
The ratio in Luxembourg compared to Switzerland demonstrates the lax business environment, what is called locally prag-ma-tism.
Read report (in French)
07:05 Posted in Luxembourg | Permalink | Comments (2)