[ad_1]
98 Seimas members voted in favor of the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Law, 10 parliamentarians voted against and 19 Seimas members abstained.
The procedure will take effect on January 1 of next year.
This decision is also important for third-country nationals: they could open a bank account and thus settle in Lithuania. Proponents of the amendments say it would encourage investment in Lithuania.
“If the driver’s license were an investment attraction, we would already be swimming in the money,” joked Kęstutis Glaveckas, Member of Parliament.
He assured that if these amendments were adopted, it would be available to various scammers. Conservative Mykolas Majauskas stated that such a procedure is valid in many European countries.
According to him, one of the incentives to make this decision should be the arrival of foreign banks in Lithuania. According to M. Majauskas, these banks would create competition for Scandinavian banks currently operating in Lithuania. However, these banks cannot come to Lithuania due to the fact that, according to M. Majauskas, their clients are identified by driver’s licenses.
The amendments to the law stipulate that the driving license of a third country national must comply with the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 2006.
If a person’s nationality is not indicated on the driver’s license, financial institutions and other companies should require proof of their nationality.
The adoption of the amendments was previously associated with Brexit, and after its postponement, the Seimas was no longer in a rush to adopt the amendments. Its initiators were outraged that this did not create the conditions for fintech companies to invest and start operations in Lithuania, which were looking for new ones in the EU due to Brexit, and later, due to the situation in Belarus.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Service initially opposed the adoption of the amendments, explaining that it would have neither specialists nor software to monitor and analyze the situation.
The driving license is considered valid for the identification and opening of a bank account in Great Britain, Estonia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Malta.
[ad_2]
