Financial regulator urges Gibraltar to seize more suspicious accounts in fight against money laundering

A FINANCIAL watchdog has reduced to a single point what Gibraltar must do to get off the gray list of tax havens.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) put the British Overseas Territory under the microscope for regulatory sanctions and final confiscations in June 2022.

It gave the Gibraltar government an action plan for its agencies to make the changes to its financial system by May 2023.

The Rock authorities sent an update report in December 2022.

The FATF is now only asking Gibraltar to carry out further final seizures of suspicious accounts.

The task force reported that Gibraltar is ‘now using a range of effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions’ for money laundering and terrorist financing.

“Gibraltar should continue to demonstrate that it is capable of pursuing further final confiscation judgments commensurate with the risk and Gibraltar context,” the FATF told the government.

The government will submit a new report to the FATF in May 2023.

If successful, the FATF will be able to remove Gibraltar from the gray list of territories.

“Gibraltar continues to work closely with the FATF and is proud of the relationship it has with this international standard-setting body,” the government said.

“The government commends the good work of its regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies as they work to meet the requirements of the Action Plan.”

The FATF office is located at the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) headquarters in Paris, France.

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