The country’s Deputy State Secretary on financial policy issues in the Ministry of Finance, Arina Andreicika, said it removed New Zealand from the list because they have been used to launder hundreds of millions through banks in Latvia’s capital Riga.
Following publication, Latvia’s Economy Minister Daniels Pavluts expressed his embarrassment that his country was involved in “obvious offshore schemes,” reports a New Zealand newspaper.
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa and the United States are on the ‘white list.’
Being removed from it means that banks and other financial institutions in Latvia and the EU can no longer accept and acknowledge the ‘know your customer’ identification and analysis performed in New Zealand.
