Kazakhstan to stop considering Liechtenstein and the State of Delaware as offshores

Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) is excluding the Principality of Liechtenstein and the U.S. State of Delaware from its list of offshore zones.

The agency has created a list of offshore zones to facilitate banking and insurance activities, operations of professional stock market participants and other types of activities related to stock markets, investment funds and microfinance organizations.

According to a draft of the ARDFM resolution published for public consideration, the change is following the new U.S. Corporate Transparency Act that enters into force starting January 1, 2024. Under this legislation, all companies incorporated with the U.S. must disclose all direct or indirect owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

In this regard, given the aforementioned standards and measures for credit and financial organizations aimed at countering risks of money laundering, the ARDFM suggests excluding the State of Delaware from the list of offshore zones.

According to the official websites of the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Action Task Force and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) neither Delaware nor Liechtenstein are included in so-called grey lists of countries supporting unfair tax competition or lists of offshore financial centers. The IMF would support such a list up until 2008.

In 2009, the OECD excluded the Principality of Liechtenstein from its greylist of tax havens as the country agreed to introduce OECD standards to improve transparency and effective exchange of information with a specific timeline for this process.

Under the Directive on Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AMLD IV) EU member states, including Liechtenstein, have imposed a ban preventing financial organizations from opening anonymous accounts. The legislation also requires mandatory verification of owners of such accounts.

In this regard, given the aforementioned standards and measures for credit and financial organizations aimed at countering risks of money laundering, the ARDFM also suggests excluding the Principality of Liechtenstein from the list of offshore zones.

Once Liechtenstein and Delaware are excluded, the list will include 51 countries: the U.S. (U.S. Virgin Islands, the State of Wyoming, Guam and Puerto Rico; the Principality of Andorra; Antigua and Barbuda; the Commonwealth of the Bahamas; Barbados; Beliz; Brunei Darussalam; the United Republic of Tanzania; the Republic of Vanuatu; the Republic of Guatemala; Grenada; the Republic of Djibouti; the Commonwealth of Dominica; the Dominican Republic; New Zealand (the Cook Islands and Niue); Spain (the Canary Islands); the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros; the Co-operative Republic of Guyana; the Republic of Costa Rica; the People’s Republic of China (Macau), the Republic of Liberia; the Lebanese Republic; the Islamic Republic of Mauritania; Malaysia (Labuan); Maldives; Malta; the Mariana Islands; the Marshall Islands; Morocco (Tangier); the Union of Myanmar; Nauru; the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Netherlands (Aruba and the Antilles Islands); Palau; Panama; Portugal (Madeira); the Independent State of Samoa; the Seychells; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; the Republic of Suriname; the Kingdom of Tonga; the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Anguilla, the Bermuda Islandsm, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Channel Islands of Sark and Alderney); South Georgia Island; South Sandwich Islands; Turks and Caicos Islands and the Chagos Archipelago.

The list also includes the Republic of Fiji; the Philippines and the French Republic (the Kerguelen Islands, French Guiana and French Polynesia); Montenegro; Sri Lanka and Jamaica.