Barbados will be officially removed from the European Union’s (EU) money laundering blacklist on August 5.
Attorney General Dale Marshall has welcomed this development. He said the return of stability and predictability in the ability to do business with entities and individuals in EU member states would benefit all Barbadians.
Marshall confirmed the official delisting, saying he had been informed that the required delegated legislation was published yesterday in the EU’s Official Journal.
“The practical effect of now being removed from this blacklist is that EU financial institutions no longer need to conduct enhanced due diligence on parties and transactions from Barbados,” he explained.
“The need to do enhanced due diligence caused many EU banks to refuse to do business with Barbadian companies and this has hampered not only personal transactions, but also had a negative impact on our ability to do business with EU entities.
“Some companies have had to cease operations in Barbados because we have been on the blacklist.”
The Minister of Legal Affairs said Barbados could now “enjoy some stability and predictability in our commercial activity with businesses and individuals within the EU member states and that benefits all Barbadians”.
“This has been a long time in coming. The fact is that we ought to have been removed from this list a year ago, having been removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list since early last year,” he said.
“At that time, we were automatically removed from the United Kingdom Blacklist. Removal from the EU list was being delayed because some EU members objected to the removal of other jurisdictions from the list, and under their ‘all or nothing’ procedures, no countries could be removed.”
Marshall said Barbados had “worked long and hard to meet the global standards
set by the FATF, and it is a source of pride”.
“This administration has made an extraordinary investment in our institutions, established and staffed new entities; invested in training; updated our laws and adopted new norms, all to make sure that Barbados is able to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism,” he added.
The European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive arm, recommended on June 10 that Barbados, Jamaica and six other countries be removed from the list of highrisk third countries and territories with deficiencies in their regime on fighting money-laundering and terrorist financing. On July 9, the EU Parliament accepted the advice.
In the delegated legislation published yesterday, EC president Ursula von der Leyen stated: “Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates have strengthened the effectiveness of their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in their action plans on the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF.
“Based on the available information, the Commission concludes that Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates no longer have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes.
“It is therefore appropriate to remove Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates from the [list].”
(SC)
The post Barbados off EU list on August 5 appeared first on nationnews.com.
