There is a majority of member states in favour of the short-term measures tabled by the European Commission in September to step up the fight against money laundering at European level, with several banking scandals highlighting the shortcomings of a system based mainly on the national level (see EUROPE 12094).
“There is a broad common view that there is a need for ongoing reforms”, the Austrian finance minister, Hartwig Löger, observed after the debate.
The legislative proposal on the table, which is part of the ongoing revision of the framework governing the European financial supervisory authorities (EBA, ESMA, EIOPA), places the action at European level in the fight against money laundering centrally within the European Banking Authority. As well as improving cooperation and the exchange of information between national authorities, the EBA would have the option to ask a national authority to take action if it detects an anomaly and, if it does not, to approach the financial institution directly.
France, the Netherlands, Malta and Estonia voiced their support for the proposals on the table. So did Spain, which supported the idea of drafting directly applicable regulations rather than directives to be transposed into national law. Hungary, in the opposite corner, opposed any loss of national competence.
Other countries counselled caution. Denmark, which is caught up in the scandal involving the Estonian subsidiary of the Danske Bank group, stressed the importance of investigating to get to the bottom of the errors that were committed. He was backed up by Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg, whose ministers called for lessons to be learnt from recent scandals before anything else is done, to understand whether and how the European regulatory framework needs to change, given that the fifth 'anti-money laundering' directive is not yet in force.
Some countries, among them Latvia, consider that the 'anti-money laundering' proposal should be removed from the proposed reform of the European financial supervisory architecture. The Netherlands expressed a contrary opinion.
Germany would like to look into the possibility of taking action at Eurozone level first, via the single banking supervisory mechanism.
As for the idea of creating a European entity dedicated to the fight against money laundering in the long term, France and Denmark said they were prepared to discuss this. Cyprus and Spain, on the other hand, were lukewarm in their response.
This dossier will return to the ministers' table in December. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)