IMC
24.10.2018 12:20:09 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
The Investment Migration Council (IMC) understands the motivation behind the OECD’s recent analysis and guidance regarding the purported circumvention of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in both residence-by-investment (RBI) and citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programs.
We entirely agree that individuals should be stopped from using such programs to avoid accurate CRS reporting or, even worse, to engage in financial crimes, including money laundering and terrorist financing.
However, it is important to be clear about four important facts:
- Only a very small percentage of residence or citizenship statuses legitimately obtained through RBI or CBI programs are at issue. For the vast majority of applicants, tax is a non-issue, since they either move completely to their new place of residence and become tax residents there or do not change their tax residence at all.
- Within the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the freedom of establishment means that any citizen of these countries can freely move to any other one of these countries and does not have to use an RBI or CBI program to establish their tax residence there.
- RBI/CBI programs are only a fraction of the immigration options available to individuals. Most residence permits and citizenships are in fact obtained under other options, which can be equally used or abused for circumventing CRS, while citizenships obtained through EU CBI programs account for less than 0.1% of all the citizenships granted in the EU.
- Of those nearly one million citizenships granted by the EU each year that are not related to CBI programs, there are many high-risk nationalities, including Pakistan, Ukraine, Algeria, Russia, Nigeria, and Somalia, that pose a much more real danger to the international community in terms of criminal activity in the financial system.
Bruno L’ecuyer, Chief Executive of the IMC, says, “The abuse of CRS is contrary to the strategic rationale for and specific design of investment migration programs, which is to facilitate – following a detailed and intensive due diligence process – the legitimate movement of capital and people, which is essential to the contemporary global economic model. The IMC urges the OECD to review and strengthen the CRS due diligence requirements, but not with a sole focus on RBI/CBI programs.”
Read our full response and key recommendations to the OECD here .
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181024005374/en/
Contact:
Bruno L’ecuyer Chief Executive of the IMC media@investmentmigration.org +41 22 533 1333
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
illumynt Appoints Matt Popieniuck as Vice President of Customer Success & Delivery12.8.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
28-year Dell Technologies veteran, most recently leading services sustainability strategy, joins to own end-to-end program execution as illumynt scales its AI hardware lifecycle business illumynt, a technology-driven leader in AI hardware lifecycle recovery and IT asset disposition (ITAD), today announced that Matt Popieniuck has joined the company as Vice President of Customer Success & Delivery, effective August 2026. He reports to CEO Jörg Herbarth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260812482293/en/ Matthew Popieniuck, Vice President of Customer Success and Delivery. Popieniuck joins illumynt after 28 years at Dell Technologies, where he progressed from group leadership through senior and principal program management roles before moving into services sustainability strategy. In that most recent chapter, he worked on the question now driving illumynt's market: what happens to enterprise technology after its fi
Ant Group launches AQ for Doctor, bringing an AI-powered workstation to millions of physicians12.8.2026 13:44:00 CEST | Press release
Ant Group today officially upgraded its physician platform, Haodf for Doctor, into AQ for Doctor, an AI-powered workstation designed to support physicians across every stage of clinical practice—from online consultations and patient management to clinical decision support and medical research. The platform is fully integrated with Ant Group's flagship AI health app, AQ, which serves more than 100 million users as of August 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260812917154/en/ Ant Group launches AQ for Doctor, bringing an AI-powered workstation to millions of physicians. Connecting doctors and patients through one AI platform "AI will never replace doctors," said Zhang Junjie, Vice President of Ant Group and Head of the Health Business. "But AI can become a trusted assistant for healthcare professionals. Our goal is to build a reliable and practical AI workstation for China's more than five million physicians—
ITC Infotech Strengthens Strategic Tech Partnership With British American Tobacco (BAT) in New Multi-year Mandate12.8.2026 12:30:00 CEST | Press release
ITC Infotech, a leading global technology services and solutions provider, today announced a landmark multi‑year strategic technology deal with British American Tobacco (BAT). Along with BAT, ITC Infotech will accelerate the transformation of BAT’s technology landscape to drive AI-enabled innovation, strengthen skills, and improve efficiencies. In this expanded partnership, ITC Infotech will provide technology services to BAT across Poland, Romania and India. ITC Infotech will also continue to collaborate with BAT to scale capabilities at the newly launched BAT Future Capabilities Centre in India, while supporting BAT’s existing technology hubs in Malaysia and Mexico. This new strategic deal will deepen an already well-established partnership between ITC Infotech and BAT, streamlining end-to-end technology delivery and improving speed, efficiency, and service quality. As part of the deal, ITC Infotech will strengthen its footprint and onshore capabilities in Europe, which will be strat
Gen Z Spending is Expected to Reach $12 Trillion by 2030. Here's Why That Doesn't Matter as Much as Brands Think12.8.2026 12:00:00 CEST | Press release
New NIQ report reveals consumers across generations are trading up and trading down in the same shopping basket, putting new pressure on middle-market products The biggest shift in consumer spending isn't generational—it's behavioral. New research from NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ) finds consumers across every age group are increasingly making the same calculation: where is a premium worth paying, and where can they save money instead? The result is a growing divide between premium and value products, while traditional middle-market offerings face mounting pressure. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260812239453/en/ Every generation is spending differently, but all are weighing value more carefully The findings come from NIQ's latest global report, A Tale of Two Consumers: The Polarized Mindsets Reshaping Global Consumption, developed in collaboration with World Data Lab. While Gen X accounted for $15.2 trillion in sp
Kinguin Renews Ravelin Partnership After Cutting Ecommerce Fraud to “Industry-Leading Low”12.8.2026 11:04:00 CEST | Press release
Leading games marketplace extends AI fraud prevention deal for further three years Ravelin automates real-time fraud defenses and supports growth to over 20 million customers Kinguin, a global digital games marketplace serving more than 20 million registered users, has renewed its partnership with AI-native fraud platform Ravelin. The agreement follows significant reductions in fraud and a shift to automated, scalable fraud detection. Since first partnering in 2018, Ravelin has helped Kinguin transform its approach to payment fraud. Kinguin has eliminated the need for real-time manual reviews, while overall fraud rates have declined by 87.5%. The renewal reflects growing confidence in AI-led fraud prevention at a time when ecommerce merchants face increasingly sophisticated attacks, particularly in the digital goods space where instant delivery also means instant results for fraudsters. Kinguin is where gaming and esports fans around the world can access their favorite games, choosing
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom