Portugal is among the top countries of the world that best prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
In a study from the Basle Institute, Portugal lies 12th on the list, ahead of both the UK and Germany.
The annual survey lists 152 counties according to their ability to assess money laundering risks and is published by the Basel Institute of Governance, an independent body based in Switzerland.
Within Europe, Luxembourg is the worst performer, followed by Greece and, certainly much to Angela Merkel’s embarrassment – Germany.
The Basel Index does not assess the amount or number of illicit transactions but is designed to assess the risk of money laundering by indicating the vulnerability of a country to money laundering and terrorism financing based on publicly available indicators such as from Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
The top five cleaner-than-clean countries where money launderers fear to tread are Finland, followed by Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania and New Zealand.
The data for the 2015 Basel Index illustrates that the risk of money laundering/terrorism financing is particularly high in low-income countries with inadequate anti-money laundering legislation and structural and functional vulnerabilities such as high rates of perceived corruption, a lack of judicial strength and lack of public and financial transparency.
Portugal’s 12th place put it ahead of many other European countries, including Denmark (15th), Belgium (23rd), the UK (28th), France (29th) and Spain (45th).
For the full list as a .pdf file, see:
basel_aml_index_2015_media_release_final.pdf
Comments
The same goes for implementing Basel principles in credit risk controls. The firmer controls the worse are credit portfolios of the banks. And no one even dare criticising the system.
Let us not take this rating seriously. In a country that finesses money laundering and has, amongst much else, an ex-PM accused of it; now waiting to be freed and compensated for the many months in jail.
We must remind our readers that Portuguese statistical analysis is no better than Greece's ELSTAT. Whose reform was an integral part of the recent MoU as the numbers given by Greece often bore no resemblance to reality.
All the Troika bodies and the OECD are on record as repeatedly saying Portuguese statistics - on which this money laundering assessment are based - are hopelessly inadequate.
Too distorted for political ends or just not in sufficient detail.