Work in the EU Council on drawing up conclusions on the Commission's Action Plan to strengthen the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (see EUROPE 12482/8) has started. A draft text, drawn up by the German EU Council Presidency, was discussed this week by the Financial Services Committee, according to our information.
The text in question, dated 14 September and copied to EUROPE, supports the Commission's intention to present a proposal in 2021 to establish a European supervisor, but does not decide between the creation of a new agency or the transfer of more responsibilities to the European Banking Authority (EBA).
However, it calls on the Commission to choose “an EU body with an independent structure” and that “a separate and autonomous governance structure for money laundering supervision should be established in all cases”.
It further specifies that, if tasks were to be transferred to a new authority, all supervisory powers in the field of money laundering should be grouped together within that authority, including those resulting from the revision of the European Supervisory Authorities.
The draft text recommends that the Commission focus at this stage on the supervision of the financial sector, given the more homogeneous nature of this sector and the high level of harmonisation of prudential requirements that already exists.
The Commission should also, according to the text, propose a gradual approach to the scope of supervision, starting with a relatively small number of obligated entities at risk in the financial sector at the outset - including bureaux de change, credit, payment and electronic money institutions and other providers of crypto-assets - and gradually increasing the number of obliged entities.
According to the document, the responsibilities of the future European Supervisor should include the right to carry out general inspections as well as to impose supervisory measures and sanctions, while respecting the specificities of national systems. At the same time, it considers that the responsibility of the European Supervisor should be guaranteed and a procedure for judicial review of their actions should be provided for.
The draft text also supports the Commission's intention to present in 2021 a proposal for a regulation to transform part of the provisions of the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive into directly applicable provisions, while specifying that further harmonisation does not necessarily require the imposition of additional obligations.
In this respect, it invites the Commission to submit a proposal covering in particular the types of obliged entities, customer due diligence obligations, internal controls, administrative sanctions, provisions on cooperation and exchange of information and the respective responsibilities and powers of supervisory authorities at European and national level.
Lastly, the text asks the Commission to present simultaneously the proposal for a Regulation and the proposal on the structure and tasks of the European Supervisor, given the interdependencies between the two proposals. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)