A man counts Saudi riyal banknotes at his jewelry shop in Tiba market in the capital Riyadh on October 3, 2016. Fayez Nureldine | AFP | Getty Images

Bad for business?

The 28 EU member states now have one month, which can be extended to two, to endorse the list. They could reject it by qualified majority. E.U. justice commissioner Vera Jourova, who proposed the list, told a news conference that she was confident states would not block it. She said it was urgent to act because "risks spread like wildfire in the banking sector". But concerns remain. Britain, which plans to leave the E.U. on March 29, said on Wednesday the list could "confuse businesses" because it diverges from a smaller listing compiled by its Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is the global standard-setter for anti-money laundering. The FATF list includes 12 jurisdictions — all on the EU blacklist — but excludes Saudi Arabia, Panama and U.S. territories. The FATF will update its list next week. London has led a pushback against the E.U. list in past days, and at closed-door meetings urged the exclusion of Saudi Arabia, E.U. sources told Reuters. The oil-rich kingdom is a major importer of goods and weapons from the E.U. and several top British banks have operations in the country. Royal Bank of Scotland is the European bank with the largest turnover in Saudi Arabia, with around 150 million euros ($169 million) in 2015, according to public data.

HSBC is Europe's most successful bank in Riyadh. It booked profits of 450 million euros in 2015 in the kingdom but disclosed no turnover and has no employees there, according to public data released under E.U. rules. "The UK will continue to work with the Commission to ensure that the list that comes into force provides certainty to businesses and is as effective as possible at tackling illicit finance," a British Treasury spokesman said.

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