The Diplomat
Gibraltar was removed on Friday from the list of territories considered not to be adequately combating financial crime, according to a decision adopted at the plenary session of the FATF, the Financial Action Task Force, meeting in Paris.
Gibraltar’s removal from the list was a long-standing aspiration of the Gibraltar authorities, whose chief minister, Fabian Picardo, expressed his satisfaction on hearing the news, stressing that the decision “reflects and recognises Gibraltar’s unwavering commitment to complying with international standards in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing”.
Gibraltar thus moves to the ‘white list’, as do Barbados, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates, which leaves the ‘grey list’ of territories and countries with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism and activities related to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
All of these jurisdictions had committed themselves to implementing an action plan to rapidly address the deficiencies identified. FATF experts conducted a series of visits to these jurisdictions and found that they have committed to “continue to strengthen their regimes” against financial crime.
The FATF, an arm of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), highlights their “significant progress in addressing the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies previously identified during their mutual evaluations”. AML/CFT is a set of standards that define a blueprint for relevant policies and processes in different countries to prevent financial crime and its impact on other criminal activities.
According to a note distributed by the Gibraltar government, FATF president T. Raja Kumar announced that Gibraltar has made “significant progress” and “has completed its action plan”, allowing it to come off the “grey list”. The FATF has found that Gibraltar “strengthened the effectiveness of its system to meet the commitments in its action plan with respect to the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF in June 2022, including by applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions for violations in the banking financial institutions and Designated Non-Financial Business Activities (DNFBP) sectors; and seeking final confiscation sentences commensurate with Gibraltar’s risk and context”.
In its note, the Gibraltar government stresses that the decision adopted by the FATF “reaffirms Gibraltar’s status as a responsible and transparent financial centre, dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of compliance with its international obligations”.
Albares-Cameron meeting
On the other hand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday on his account on the social network X, that he has held a new meeting with his British counterpart, David Cameron, taking advantage of the presence of both in New York to participate in a session of the United Nations General Assembly on Ukraine.
Albares limited himself to indicating that he spoke with Cameron “to push forward the agreement in relation to Gibraltar”, reiterating: “We want an area of shared prosperity”.
The two ministers met at the end of November in Brussels and, after the meeting, Albares said he saw Cameron’s willingness to conclude the agreement between the European Commission and the UK on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit. Albares insisted that the agreement “is very close” and although he did not give dates, he warned that it should not be delayed, because the European elections in June 2024 are very close.
The joint use of the airfield built on the Isthmus and the control of border crossings at the port and the airport are some of the stumbling blocks that have brought the talks to a virtual standstill, despite the fact that technical meetings are held from time to time. At one point, the horizon of Easter Week, at the end of March, was mentioned, because if the agreement is reached on the eve of the European elections, it will be very difficult to reach an agreement, much less so if the new Parliament and the new European Commission are already in the process of being formed.
