Blacklisting is an ‘anti-competitive move by Europe’

Friday 30th May 2008, 2:29PM BST.

GUERNSEY will have to wait for a forthcoming International Monetary Fund report before it can lobby the EU for inclusion on its list of countries deemed to have top quality anti-money laundering controls.

Treasury and Resources Minister Charles Parkinson said he agreed with Guernsey Financial Services Commission director-general Peter Neville’s comments yesterday that the decision to leave the Channel Islands off the ‘white list’ was a political one.

‘I am sure that there is no reason why we shouldn’t be fully approved but obviously some countries in the EU loath the idea that any tax haven could be respectable,’ he said.

‘I think once the IMF has given us its approval next year we should be able to go back to the EU and say we are fully approved by them and ask them what are they playing at.’