Gibraltar gambling chief rails against FATF greylisting

Andrew Lyman, Gibraltar’s gambling commissioner, has hit out at the recent greylisting of the territory, arguing there was no “fundamental [or] systemic weakness” with its regulatory regime.

Gibraltar was placed on the grey list by the Financial Action Task Force on 17 June after the body called for the territory to introduce an action plan to improve its financial failings.

Retaliating in bullish fashion, Lyman said that Gibraltar was a “flagship jurisdiction” in how it has improved its AML and combating terrorist financing (CTF) systems, two points the FATF flagged as its reason for placing the territory on the grey list.

Touching on the claim from the FATF that Gibraltar had failed to issue “proportionate fines or penalties for laundering or terrorist financing breaches”, Lyman said a timeline discrepancy could be a major factor in Gibraltar’s listing.

He said: “Had the FATF accepted that the range of sanctions imposed by the Gambling Division in the post-observation period were effective, proportionate, and persuasive then, all other issues considered, and applying the principle of proportionality, it may be that Gibraltar would not have been placed on the grey list at all.”

Lyman went on to argue that the jurisdiction capabilities around AML and CTF were of a high-standard.

He continued: “I would be as bold as to say, that there are no fundamental, systemic, AML/CTF weaknesses in this jurisdiction and Gibraltar now has a strong AML and CTF system which makes the “grey listing” decision more difficult to cope with.”

However, Lyman noted that while being disappointed with the FATF’s decision, it meant there was work to do to remove the jurisdiction from the grey list.

He noted further onsite checks would be carried out to ensure all operators were adhering to the standards set by the FATF.

He said: “We have to prove out that our regime is robust. Something we must accept we did not manage to achieve in the current round. We must assault the summit again.

“In order to achieve this, it will necessary to continue our supervisory programme as well as to bring forward some onsite visits which may not have been anticipated until a later date,” he added.

Looking to the future, Lyman was effusive in his stance: “What we will not do is artificially adapt our standards to accommodate enforcement cases. That is not the Gibraltar way.

“I do not believe for one moment that the FATF are asking us to do that. I do not see the objective as imposing more sanctions per se, but proving out the overall effectiveness of our regime and imposing sanctions where necessary and in a proportionate manner,” he concluded.

Gibraltar will hope it can repeat what Iceland and Malta did by extricating itself from the list within 12 months, thus minimising the damage to its economy and reputation.

However, being added to the FATF’s grey list results in an average hit of 7.6% to GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund.