Sat, Apr 26th, 2014

 

BERLIN—The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has criticized Germany for not doing enough to fight money laundering and international terrorism, according to a German media report.

German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche said the OECD's Financial Action Task Force on money laundering, known as FATF, has given Germany a deadline to change its laws.

"If Germany doesn't take any concrete steps into this direction until June 2014, it will be included into the enhanced follow-up procedure or even be part of the listing procedure that is applied to high-risk countries," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble wrote in the letter to Justice Minister Heiko Maas. The finance minister warned such a move would be bad for Germany's reputation and called on Mr. Maas to quickly commit to necessary legal measures.

The OECD said people opting for money laundering of their own assets don't face any legal consequences in Germany and added that penalties for money laundering are too low, the magazine says.

A spokesman for the German finance ministry declined to confirm the existence or the content of the letter.

However, spokesman Martin Chaudhuri confirmed that the FATF has requested action and the finance ministry has contacted other ministries to reach an agreement on issues addressed by the FATF. He declined to elaborate.