Brussels, 23/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Austrian Government has announced that it will be taking, within three months, the measures required to do away with anonymous savings accounts. This decision was taken as Austria faces the threat of expulsion from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and a European Commission action before the Court of Justice.
At the start of the month, FATF (an intergovernmental body created in 1989 by the G7 Summit in Paris, with 26 member countries) decided that it would automatically suspend Austria's membership on 15 June 2000 if it had failed to take an initiative related to savings accounts. It gave Vienna until 20 May to "table and support a bill banning the opening of new anonymous savings accounts". The Austrian Government will also have to "publish a political statement clearly indicating that it will take the necessary measures to abolish anonymous savings accounts before the end of June 2002".
"The Austrian Council of Ministers decided on Tuesday that it would comply with the FATF's demands", announced an Austrian diplomat. Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser (far right) will table a bill for the abolition of anonymous savings accounts. On Friday he will meet banking representatives to discuss possible practical arrangements. "This bill will be debated by Parliament, but we know that a majority already favours it", said the spokesman for the Austrian Representation to the EU.
The maintenance of anonymous savings accounts (with a ceiling of ATS 200,000) is the subject of infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission, which considers that this practice runs counter to European legislation on money laundering (Directive 91/308/EEC). In October 1997, it referred the case to the European Court of Justice. The case is already well under way, with a hearing of the two parties scheduled for 15 May. The Court of Justice statutes provide that, at any time, the applicant (the Commission) may request that the case be removed from the register if it considers that there is no reason to continue it. "We would be delighted to see Austrian authorities abolish this type of account and we could consider halting the proceedings under way before the Court of Justice. But we are waiting to see what Austria really does and we will examine in detail the compatibility of their bill with the directive on money laundering", commented the spokesman for European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, responsible for the single market.