Luxembourg off money-laundering grey list: ministry

Luxembourg has been taken off a ‘grey list’ of territories seen as easy touches for money laundering and terrorist financing, the Grand Duchy’s justice ministry said Wednesday.

The 34-member Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body set up in 1989 to raise international policy standards for prevention and prosecution, “has decided that Luxembourg comes off the grey list,” the ministry said in a statement.

The decision was taken during a Paris gathering of governments and other signatories on February 23-25, it said, spelling out the FATF’s recognition of “substantial and continuing efforts” by Luxembourg to “reinforce its judicial arsenal” in this field.

In February last year, the FATF criticised Luxembourg for lax sanctions regimes and application, saying the investment haven conformed fully with just one of 49 recommendations developed for members.

In late-2010, the Luxembourg government voted through a wide-reaching package of legal reforms in this area.