VZCZCXYZ0020
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLE #0465/01 3201450
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 161450Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY LUXEMBOURG
TO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6139

C O N F I D E N T I A L LUXEMBOURG 000465 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR P, T, ISN, EUR, EUR/WE ALLEGRONE AND SHARP 
TREASURY FOR TTFC O'BRIEN, FERNANDEZ, SULLIVAN, AND ARCHIN 
TREASURY ALSO FOR FINCEN FREIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2017 
TAGS: TTFN EFIN PARM MNUC PREL KCRM ECON LU IR
SUBJECT: TREASURY OFFICIALS MEET WITH GOL AND CLEARSTREAM 
 
REF: STATE 149648 
 
Classified By: DCM Steven H Kraft for Reasons 1.4 b & d 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:  On 8 November 2007, the U.S. Department of 
Treasury held consultations in Luxembourg with the Government 
of Luxembourg (GOL) and private sector as part of ongoing USG 
outreach highlighting the danger of doing business with Iran. 
 The Treasury delegation met with senior Ministry of Finance 
and MFA officials as well as with an official from the 
independent financial sector supervisor.  They also met 
separately with representatives from Clearstream, SA.  During 
both meetings the Treasury delegation called attention to the 
Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) recent activities and 
statements regarding Iran, the U.S.'s 25 October domestic 
designations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) 
and related entities, including Banks Melli, Mellat and 
Saderat, and the risks to institutions of doing business with 
Iran.  The GOL thanked the delegation for the meeting and 
information and also indicated it would issue a circular 
informing Luxembourg financial institutions of the FATF's 
actions.  Clearstream representatives said they appreciated 
the meeting and requested that the USG provide more detailed 
information regarding designated individuals/entities 
whenever possible.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------- 
GOL CONSULTATIONS 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Department of Treasury A/S for Terrorist Financing 
Patrick O'Brien, Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network (FinCEN) James Freis, and Policy Advisor DeAnna 
Fernandez met with Luxembourg's Director of the Treasury 
Jean Guill and Jean-Luc Kamphaus, First Councilor, Ministry 
of Finance; as well as Orlando Pinto, from the MFA,s 
Directorate of International Economic Relations and 
Jean-Francois Hein from the Commission de Surveillance du 
Secteur Fiancier (CSSF - NOTE: The CSSF is the Luxembourg 
financial sector's supervisory authority. END NOTE).  The 
Embassy was represented by Tom Boughter, Political and 
Economic Section Chief and Jason Chiodi, Economic Officer 
(notetaker). 
 
¶3. (C) A/S O'Brien began by placing the delegation's visit in 
context - he had been part of an interagency delegation to 
Vienna and Brussels on counter-terrorism issues, but Treasury 
was taking the opportunity to have a few side meetings to 
discuss the Iran issue.  O'Brien mentioned that he would be 
meeting with Clearstream, SA later in the day since it was 
the most logical contact in Luxembourg due to its vital 
importance in the international finance system in its roll as 
"the banker's bank."  A/S O'Brien told the GOL that Treasury 
had several purposes for the meeting:  1) to call the GOL's 
attention to recent actions and activity taken regarding Iran 
- FATF's 11 October actions/statements and the 25 October 
U.S. domestic designations of the IRGC; 2) to answer any 
questions the GOL may have about the U.S.' 25 October 
designations; and 3) to ask for GOL's input and assistance in 
efforts to multilateralize additional sanctions on Iran to 
support the diplomacy. 
 
¶4. (C) A/S O'Brien reviewed the recent FATF statements and 
actions as well as the USG's actions based on the FATF 
recommendations.  FinCEN Director Freis explained the 
advisory that FinCEN issued to U.S. financial institutions 
based on these recommendations and provided the GOL with a 
copy of the advisory.  Hein, the CSSF representative, 
indicated that the CSSF had not yet issued such an advisory, 
but that the CSSF would do so. 
 
¶5. (C) A/S O' Brien noted that while the U.S. made the 25 
October designations unilaterally, it saw this action as a 
piece of an overall effort to build consensus for further 
multilateral action.  He further noted that the U.S. actions 
also provide additional information to the private sector. 
He stated that while foreign financial institutions are not 
legally obligated to take action against U.S.- designated 
entities, many institutions still take the information under 
consideration as part of their overall country risk 
evaluations and that it has also contributed to a private 
sector re-evaluation of the risks of doing business with 
Iran.  He further noted that if the late November Solana and 
IAEA reports turn out to be negative as all expect, then all 
signs point towards a third round of UNSC sanctions.  In that 
regard, O'Brien pointedly asked for Luxembourg's support 
within the EU for sanctions.  Guill did not respond 
specifically saying only that he also agreed that all signs 
pointed to a third round of sanctions before the end of the 
year.  The Treasury delegation also asked for Luxembourg's 
feedback and input on the sanctions process, specifically 
regarding feedback from the private sector on difficulties 
they encounter in complying with the sanctions.  Treasury was 
very interested in how entities which had relationships with 
Iran were able to implement these sanctions. 
 
---------------------------------- 
MEETING WITH CLEARSTREAM OFFICIALS 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) The same USG delegation met later in the day with 
Michael Steinicke, Head of Department, Group Risk Management 
and Group Compliance and Christian Heyne, Head of Section, 
Legal Affairs from Clearstream, S.A. (Clearstream).  A/S 
O'Brien repeated the context of the visit and explained that 
his delegation was in the region on other USG business and 
wanted to take the opportunity to continue similar Treasury 
outreach efforts around the world to call attention to the 
risks of doing business with Iran.  O'Brien reviewed and 
explained the reasoning behind the FATF statements and 
actions, focusing on matters specifically applicable to the 
difficulties the private sector had in dealing with a 
jurisdiction which lacked transparency, making it difficult 
to "know your customer" (KYC). O'Brien mentioned that the 
USG understood that there was a relationship between 
Clearstream and Iran and while this was a matter for 
Clearstream to decide on their own internal calculus, it was 
important to note that there are significant risks inherent 
in Iranian business and there has been a significant private 
sector movement away from doing business with Iran by big 
banks. 
 
¶7. (C) Heyne explained the legal framework in which 
Clearstream operated and Steinicke explained how Clearstream 
conducted KYC/compliance activities.  Clearstream's goal was 
to remain in one regulatory environment to the greatest 
extent possible (that of Luxembourg as it is a 
Luxembourg-registered company).  Their compliance efforts 
included an automated transaction filtering program which 
uses Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially 
Designated Nationals (OFAC SDN), EU, and UN lists to generate 
alerts.  These alerts are then personally reviewed by 
compliance officers who will either authorize the transaction 
or report to the appropriate Luxembourg authorities.  Heyne 
said that Clearstream had not had an instance in which their 
transaction screening revealed an entity on the OFAC list - 
but not on the EU or UN lists - and thus were forced to make 
a decision about whether to refer the information to 
government authorities.  Clearstream explained the challenge 
that KYC activities posed due to the nature of its business 
and how little information is included about the transaction 
beyond the amount(s), account number(s), and bank name(s). 
 
¶8. (C) O'Brien and Freis thoroughly detailed U.S. regulations 
and suggested that in certain instances, Clearstream may have 
access to more information than simply the above information. 
 Clearstream acknowledged this possibility.  Clearstream then 
inquired about the general legal parameters governing an 
instance in which a U.S. bank was both a client/customer of 
Clearstream but also a service provider to Clearstream in the 
U.S. market.  Freis clearly explained the extent to which 
U.S. sanctions obligations applied to any U.S. person and 
thus could restrict a U.S. bank from providing services 
indirectly to a sanctioned entity.  In response to Heyne's 
questions, Freis explained that the services some U.S. 
entities provide via foreign counterparts which may not be 
subject to U.S. laws usually contain provisions that the 
foreign counterpart not engage in activities with U.S. 
sanctioned persons.  He relayed a historical, publicly known 
example in which UBS was assessed a $100 million civil money 
penalty by the U.S. Federal Reserve in May 2004 for deceptive 
conduct in providing bulk cash services to several countries 
subject to U.S. sanctions programs via an overseas affiliate 
in violation of its contractual agreement with the Fed. 
 
¶9. (C) The Treasury delegation also asked for Clearstream's 
feedback and input regarding difficulties they encountered in 
complying with the sanctions.  This was of great interest to 
the USG as the U.S. private sector and regulatory authorities 
have very little experience dealing with Iran due to 
long-existing U.S. sanctions programs.  In response, the 
Clearstream officials said that meetings and information such 
as this were of great help and that when possible, more 
specific information regarding customers would also be 
helpful. 
¶10. (C) COMMENT:  Treasury Director Guill is Justice and de 
facto-Finance Minister Frieden's right-hand man.  As Frieden 
had just returned from the U.S. where he had discussed the 
matter of Iran sanctions with various USG officials, Guill 
seemed embarrassed and a bit irritated that the CSSF had not 
yet complied with the FATF's recommendation to issue an 
advisory.  We are thus confident that the CSSF will issue an 
advisory shortly.  While Guill did not respond directly to 
O'Brien's request for GOL support for a third round of Iran 
sanctions, in discussions prior to the meeting, Kamphaus told 
P/E Chief that "we are beginning to re-think our position 
regarding sanctions."  As recently as late October, senior 
MFA contacts informed us that Luxembourg's position was that 
it had confidence in the P5 1 process and in EU High 
Representative Solana and that it hoped a third round of 
sanctions would not be necessary.  Post will follow up with 
our GOL contacts as well as with the CSSF if a circular is 
not issued within two weeks (21 November). 
 
¶11. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED:  The Clearstream officials were 
forthcoming about how they conducted KYC and compliance 
activities and claimed full compliance in light of the 
limited amount of information available to them.  However, 
the Treasury delegation's detailed explanation of the 
applicability of U.S. sanction laws made it clear to them 
that there was the possibility of exposure to U.S. sanctions 
in certain instances.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶12. (SBU) This cable has been cleared by A/S O'Brien & 
Director Freis. 
WAGNER