Summary
The Global Forum rated Lebanon overall Largely Compliant with the international standard of transparency and exchange of information on requests handled over the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. Lebanon has made good progress in addressing the deficiencies identified in its previous report published in 2016, most importantly with regard to the bearer shares and absence of access to and exchange of banking information. Lebanon should still ensure that existing bearer shares are transferred to the State. Lebanon has also strengthened its Anti-Money Laundering and tax legal frameworks in order to ensure that beneficial ownership information is available in line with the standard. Practical implementation of these new obligations requires further monitoring. Lebanon’s effectiveness in answering requests is improving year after year as its experience grows (it received 77 requests in three years), however, Lebanon should monitor that all necessary resources are in place to respond in a timely manner.