One of Britain's largest and most well respected daily newspapers, The Independent, wrongly named Bermuda as a money laundering jurisdiction in an article in the business section of yesterday's paper.

And The Independent, with a circulation of more than four times Bermuda's population, has posed a substantial risk to Bermuda's image through the erroneous article.

The report on the blacklist issued by the G-7 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday confused Bermuda with the Bahamas as one of the 15 jurisdictions which did not meet the FATF's criteria on safeguards against international money laundering practices.

The Independent's report detailed the FATF announcement and included congratulatory comments from the Bermuda International Business Association and the International Companies Division of the Chamber of Commerce.

The two organisations said they never expected Bermuda to be on the list but welcomed the news saying it served to "validate'' Bermuda's standing as a premier offshore financial centre.

Following a phone call from The Royal Gazette , The Independent corrected their error in their on-line edition. But night editor of the paper, Terry Kirby, said he would be unable to make a correction in the printed paper unless they heard from the Bermuda Government.

Head of Government Information services, Gavin Shorto, worked quickly to rectify the error after 5 p.m. yesterday. After speaking with Mr. Kirby in London, Mr. Shorto said he was given an assurance that a correction would feature prominently in The Independent's Monday edition.

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