ANOTHER STEPS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORIST FINANCING

In July 2019 the European Commission adopted a communication and four reports that will support European and national authorities in better addressing money laundering and terrorist financing risks, underlining that a number of structural shortcomings in the implementation of the Union’s concerning rules still need to be addressed.

The communication gives an overview of the four reports published: (1) The supranational risk assessment report provides an update of sectorial risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing. (2) The assessment of recent high-profile money laundering cases in the financial sector shows banks, which, in a number of the cases analysed, did not respect effectively or sometimes did not comply at all with anti-money laundering requirements. (3) The report about the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) details that due to their different status, powers, and organisation, some FIUs are not able to access and share relevant information. FIUs also sometimes lack the proper IT tools to efficiently import and export information to/from the FIU.net. (4) The interconnection of central bank account registries’ report analyses the shortcomings in current anti-money laundering supervision and cooperation, and identifies ways to address them.

The reports will serve as a basis for futures debates on further actions in this area, including with regard to the obligations of financial institutions and the powers and tools necessary for effective supervision.