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FATF – Financial Action Task Force

This is an international organization that promotes polices and procedures for financial institutions worldwide to follow in an effort to combat Money Laundering and Terrorism.

FATF focused a lot of its energy on offshore banking, offshore corporations, offshore trusts, and offshore stock brokers. FATF did not seem to be very interested in offshore taxation directly. FATF made things like the Austrian Sparbuch accounts go away and numbered bank accounts go away too. The days when you could go into an offshore lawyer’s office and buy a corporation complete with an already opened bank account for cash along with 200 pre-signed checks was over forever.

FATF are the people whose policies inconvenience you every time you wish to engage in a financial transaction anywhere in the world. We have no idea how effective or ineffective their practices and policies are. All we know is that they are in place and they have changed offshore banking and offshore corporations globally. Perhaps the world is a better place to live in today because of these policies, we do not know so, and can only hope so.

FATF in 2000 blacklisted certain countries (whose practices they did not like including Panama)

FATF Blacklisted Countries in 2000
Bahamas Lebanon Panama
Cayman Islands Liechtenstein Philippines
Cook Islands Marshall Islands Russia
Dominica Nauru St Kitts and Nevis
Israel Niue St Vincent and the Grenadines

In the year 2001 these eight countries were added to the blacklist.

FATF Blacklisted Countries Added in 2001
Egypt Guatemala Indonesia Nigeria
Grenada Hungary Myanmar Ukraine

In the year 2006 only Myanmar was on the blacklist. All the other countries complied sufficiently to be removed from the blacklist.

The blacklist is sort of a wake up call to implement better practices and procedures usually with deadlines. Only three times has FATF implemented counter measures to countries and they have all been removed. The three countries were: Myanmar, Nauru and Ukraine

These countries were eventually pressured to comply with FATF guidelines to get off the blacklist. Panama hired a lawyer who is a genius to write their anti-money laundering laws. He fought vigorously to show they were up to standards and got Panama removed from the blacklist a few years ago while leaving Panama intact as an asset protection tax haven and offshore jurisdiction. Panama still has anonymous bearer share corporations and anonymous foundations. The man was simply brilliant.

FATF made 40 recommendations to be followed by financial institutions to combat money laundering and terrorism and they can be found here:

Money Laundering: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/

They then came up with an additional nine recommendations to prevent terrorist financing which you can access through this link:

Prevent Terrorist Financing: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/


Current FATF Member Countries
Argentina France Luxembourg Spain
Australia Germany Mexico Sweden
Austria Greece The Netherlands Switzerland
Belgium Gulf Co-operation Council New Zealand Turkey
Brazil Hong Kong, China Norway United Kingdom
Canada Iceland Portugal United States
Denmark Ireland Russian Federation  
European Commission Italy Singapore  
Finland Japan South Africa  

 Below is a list of other groups with an interest in anti-money laundering and terrorism financing.

These and above links came from:

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/

Other International Organizations
African Development Bank Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Asia Development Bank Intergovernmental Action Group against Money-Laundering in Africa (GIABA) Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors (OGBS)
The Commonwealth Secretariat International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) United Nations
Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units International Monetary Fund (IMF) Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) World Bank
European Central Bank (ECB) Organization of American States / Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (OAS/CICTE) Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council
Europol Organization of American States / Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (OAS/CICAD) World Customs Organization (WCO)