As part of its ‘anti-money laundering’ legislative package (see other news), the European Commission proposed on Tuesday 20 July to establish a ‘grey’ list of third countries at risk of money laundering, alongside the existing ‘black’ list.
This differentiated approach should, according to the Commission, harmonise countermeasures at EU level and ensure greater proportionality in the consequences that accompany the inclusion of a country on the EU list.
“The consequences of listing will be tailored to each specific country in accordance to the threat it imposes on the EU financial system. So we will have an EU ‘grey’ list for cooperative countries outside the EU which have deficiencies in their system”, announced EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness at a press conference.
Under this new approach, third countries that are subject to a “call to action” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will be identified by the Commission as “high risk” third countries and therefore placed on the EU ‘blacklist’. All available heightened vigilance measures will be applied to them as well as additional country-specific countermeasures.
Third countries whose regimes have weaknesses and which are subject to “enhanced scrutiny” by the FATF, but which have committed to address these weaknesses, will, in principle, be placed on a new ‘grey’ list. For these third countries, the consequence of listing will then be less severe, as they will be subject to increased country-specific vigilance measures proportionate to the risks.
“The Commission will also be able to list countries outside the EU autonomously and decide whether to include them on the grey or the blacklist”, said McGuinness.
In assessing the level of threat from these third countries and the appropriate countermeasures, the European Commission will also draw on the expertise of the new EU agency dedicated to combating money laundering.
We note that the Commission proposed a new methodology for establishing the EU ‘blacklist’ of high-risk third countries in May 2020 (see EUROPE 12482/8), following the rejection of the list by the EU Council in 2019 (see EUROPE 12209/12). At the time, the idea of a ‘grey’ list based on the existing list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was already under consideration (see EUROPE 12295/15).
The Commission’s new approach will be implemented at the same time as the new EU ‘anti-money laundering’ legal framework, i.e. 3 years after its adoption.
See the regulation: https://bit.ly/2Uvmcbt (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)