April 21 - May 27, 2015 - US Official reveals that the US had warned Andorra about wider money laundering issues in the country, which later triggered FinCEN’s notice

On 21 April 2015, the economic advisor of the United States embassy in Madrid Anton K. Smith confirmed that the US was frustrated with Andorra’s lack of progress regarding money laundering regulation and, as a result, published the notice against BPA. Speaking at an event in Madrid, SMITH said “the United States had been warning Andorra for months that it was concerned about errors in money laundering prevention, in especially the Moneyval and FAFT cases”, referencing a letter sent by the US to then Foreign Minister Gilbert Saboya (US letter to Saboya 26 08 2014). He explained that the Andorran authorities “were not paying attention with the fluidity that we were expecting, and that is the reason why in the end we had to use the hammer.” [referring to FinCEN’s notice against BPA]. (link)

Smith further acknowledged that FinCEN’s notice was about wider issues in Andorra in an an declassified email where he wrote "I was referring here [in his previous statement]  to a general demarche that was delivered to the Andorran authorities in August of last year, triggered by concerns that led to the eventual 311 action."