Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - France and Germany have a joint letter to the European Commission asking it to clamp down on money-laundering around the world.
In their letter, sent on 24 April, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici stress the importance of protecting the integrity of the common market against illegal money and non-cooperative jurisdictions that deprive the public purse of crucial tax income. The two countries recommend that the Commission draw up a list of non-cooperating countries and take measures to restrict the ability of banks and financial institutions in the eurozone to operate with or within the said countries. They suggest tighter transparency requirements about the end beneficiaries of financial products, bank accounts, trust funds and the like, which proliferate in tax havens.
The letter is timed to coincide with the launch of inter-institutional talks in the EU on the fourth EU direction on tackling money-laundering and also comes a few days ahead of a G20 finance summit in Washington (see EUROPE 10832).
European Court of Justice gives countries extra powers over banks. On Thursday 25 April, EU member states were given the power by the European Court of Justice to require banks to hand over the identities of bank customers carrying out transactions in their countries if they need the information to clamp down on money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The Court of Justice was asked to decide on a dispute between the Spanish government and Gibraltar-registered Danish investment bank Jyske, which operates in Spain under the freedom to supply services but is not registered in the country. Jyske refused to provide the Spanish government with the names of its customers and information about transactions suspected to be money-laundering. In its ruling in case C-212/11, the Court of Justice says that EU rules do not prevent the Spanish government from requiring banks operating in Spain without being registered there to directly provide information to the Spanish government that is needed to clamp down on money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. In the absence of effective mechanisms to ensure full cooperation among the member states to properly prevent these crimes, the Court of Justice says that such a requirement for information to be provided is a “proportionate measure”. (LC/transl.fl)