The current EU rules against money laundering are not stopping dirty money from moving between the European financial centres, the NGO Transparency International said in a new report dated Tuesday 25 April.
“We've had the scandals, we've had the talk, now it's time for action”, said Laure Brillaud, the NGO's anti-money laundering policy officer.
The report looks at the transparency of the beneficial owners of screen companies and trusts in the Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. The most vulnerable sectors include real estate, gambling, trust service providers and virtual currency.
Slovenia came top in all categories, having set up a public register of the beneficial owners of all companies or trusts carrying out activities or liable for tax in the country. “The Netherlands will also go public for companies but still remains blind to the issue of trusts”, TI writes. The Czech Republic and Italy have opted to go no further than the rules of the fourth anti-money laundering directive by choosing access to information on beneficial owners only for persons able to demonstrate a legitimate interest in cases where there are already reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
The NGO considers that the threshold of 25% of shares or voting rights to be considered beneficial owner is too high and too easy to get around. The fall-back solution contained in the directive provides that senior managers may be considered beneficial owners if it is not possible to identify the real beneficial owner, allowing him or her to remain anonymous. The European Parliament's negotiating position, however, reduces threshold from 25% to 10%.
The rules proposed by the European Commission in July of last year require registration only for trusts managed by trustees established in the EU, the NGO explains. “It would not include, for example trusts set up by European citizens outside the EU, such as in Panama, Bahamas or Belize”, it laments. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)