exclusiv in conversation with
Michael Lauber, Managing Director
of the Liechtenstein Banking Association

What are the duties of the
Liechtenstein Banking Association?

The inaugural assembly of the Liechtenstein Banking Association «LBV» was held at the Liechtenstein Chamber of Industry on 23rd September 1969. The foundation of a special interest association was the expression of a dynamic development among Liechtenstein banks. In the beginning of the 1960s there were three banks in Vaduz, and Liechtenstein was quite far from being an international banking location.

In the years to come the founding of an association turned out to be the right decision. Liechtenstein’s accession to the EEA prompted a deluge of statutory adaptations, in which the banking association was consulted for assistance. Increasing involvement in domestic as well as external relations ultimately led to the fact that work of the association had to be more professionally channelled, and a managing director assumed the leadership of the Liechtenstein Banking Association.

The expedient article in the prevailing statutes «Art. 3» comprises the safe- guarding and representation of the rights and interests of the banking service sector, selfregulation for the protection of the financial centre, the creditors and the investors as well as the retention and development of Liechtenstein as a financial and banking centre.

The financial centre Liechtenstein
Future visions, opportunities, development

The financial centre Liechtenstein has many advantages as the result of a stable social, legal and economic order. It has a considerable degree of political continuity and stability, and also features a well-developed infrastructure, a streamlined bureaucracy as well as a considerable measure of financial strength in the public sector.

As Managing Director of the Liechtenstein Banking Association, I think an important task is to safeguard and expand these advantages, and also to expand collaboration on international levels. The banking association deals intensively with matters pertaining to the image of the Liechtenstein banking centre. We provide active assistance in the «Image Liechtenstein» foundation, whose objective is to promote the standing of the Principality in nearby foreign countries and those countries further afield.

Michael Lauber is a lawyer by profession. He has worked as an examining magistrate, and was also the head of the central agency for organised criminality with the federal administration. Michael Lauber built up a self-regulatory organisation in the money laundering sphere in Zurich. He was the founder and director of the Financial Intelligence Unit «FIU», the Liechtenstein registration office for money laundering.

As Managing Director of the Liechtenstein Banking Association he considers his main task to continue and to expand the build-up and the maintenance of contacts to foreign authorities, associations and organisations, and also to strengthen the trust in the financial centre Liechtenstein and to develop new markets.


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