EU States Object to Dirty-Money List After U.S. Outrage
- Governments didn’t back list proposed by European Commission
- Plan would raise hurdles for EU banks’ Saudi, U.S. business
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Plans for a European Union money-laundering blacklist stalled after objections by all but one of the bloc’s 28 governments, lowering the risk of additional regulatory hurdles for banks doing business with Saudi Arabia and several U.S. territories.
The list of jurisdictions with inadequate controls on illicit transactions and terrorism financing was proposed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, and quickly criticized by the U.S. Treasury as the result of a flawed process. Officials representing the bloc’s national governments met in Brussels on Friday and agreed to ask the commission to revise the procedure of drafting the blacklist, people familiar with the matter said.