Cyprus recorded the most complete record of data on the fight against money laundering and the most effective exchange of this information, out of a total of twelve countries evaluated, leaving behind countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, according to A report that was completed a few days ago, and was given to the newspaper "Simerini" by the global non-governmental organization "Transparency International", which has as its main goal the fight against corruption.
The report is titled "Top Secret Financial Crime Investigation". It includes a special section for our country that records very positive reports on its handling of the fight against money laundering. Among them is the report that the on-the-spot checks of the competent authorities on the issue of money laundering have increased in recent years, taking into account the size of the Cypriot economy. Transparency International's remarks are significant, given that Cyprus has, in recent years, been strongly challenged and criticized on this issue, both on the foreign and domestic fronts.
The main findings for Cyprus
The report notes that Cyprus has provided the most comprehensive file on combating money laundering, "with the available information relating to 14 of the 20 relevant indicators". The only area where no data was found was that of legal entities.
Transparency International also notes that Cyprus "sends and receives a very small number of requests related to the fight against money laundering, even in relation to the small size of its economy." Indicatively, it is stated that in 2012 the outgoing requests were only five, while the number of incoming requests was small and specifically 26. It is added that the average response time of our country to requests has improved today to 120 days, compared to 150 days, which was the response time in 2010.
The report points out that the on-the-spot checks of the competent authorities on the issue of money laundering have increased in recent years, taking into account the size of the Cypriot economy. The investigations resulted in, according to the investigation, fines of 170,000 euros and 215,000 in 2012 and 2011, respectively. A fine of 5000 euros was also imposed in 2013. It is noted that the majority of cases were pending when the report was made public.
The finding that "the number of criminal cases for money laundering was very high in 2014 was positive for our island. 1/5 of the cases ended in criminal prosecutions", the report emphasizes. The main providers of data, the report notes, are the Anti-Concealment Unit (MOKAS) and Moneyval ratings.
"Rinses from competitors about rinsing"
The findings of the global report of Transparency International in relation to money laundering in our country, were invited to comment in our newspaper the Executive Vice President of "Transparency International" (Cyprus), Director of Compliance Department of the Bank of Cyprus. Marios Skandalis.
"The results of this research are particularly important for our country, considering that Cyprus has recorded the most complete file of data / statistics, regarding the fight against money laundering and the most effective exchange of this information with various other countries and Principles from the entire sample of countries evaluated, including countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, etc.
This fact, given that Cyprus has the strictest regulatory framework in the fight against money laundering in the European Union since 2013, presenting perhaps the most remarkable readiness and efficiency of implementing transparency frameworks, such as that of FATCA and CRS, confirms beyond any doubt. "There is no doubt that Cyprus is one of the safest and most transparent centers of financial services in Europe," said Mr. Skandalis.
Asked to comment on the fact that Cyprus has been strongly accused, in the past mainly, by European officials, of money laundering and that it acts as a tax haven for foreign companies, Marios Skandalis said: "Unfortunately, the financial services sector is characterized by a strong competitiveness especially from European countries with the same characteristics of their gross domestic product as Cyprus.
Therefore the specific unfounded accusations, which in some cases are muddy, are part of this competition. The specific findings of the research, as well as the above data but also many others, such as that Cyprus is not mentioned in any way in the list of tax havens published by the European Union, or that the OECD recognizes Cyprus as broadly compliant, etc., reject these accusations in the most categorical way. "
Source: TODAY