The European Banking Authority (EBA) published on Tuesday 15 December its first Report on progress made by competent authorities with the setting up of colleges to enhance supervisory cooperation for anti-money laundering and countering the terrorits financing purposes.
The monitoring of colleges of supervisors is indeed one of the new tasks entrusted to the EBA following the revision of the European architecture of financial supervision (see EUROPE 12237/15).
The European financial supervisory authorities published guidelines in December 2019 that set out how competent authorities should establish these colleges. Between the publication of the guidelines and October 2020, colleges have been set up for 10 EU banks.
The EBA has closely monitored their operation and has observed a number of good practices. In particular, the report notes that there was a good level of interaction and willingness to share information through a combination of presentations and roundtable discussions within the colleges.
However, it also noted some difficulties, mainly related to the timely invitation of some observers. The involvement of third country authorities or prudential supervisors has been limited or even non-existent in some colleges, it explains.
Other difficulties related to the formal aspects of the College, such as delays in establishing a written cooperation and information-sharing agreement and in drawing up the conditions for the participation of observers, have sometimes hampered exchanges, the report says.
The Guidelines recognise that the establishment of these new colleges is not an easy process and therefore provide for a transitional period of two years during which the competent authorities are required to put in place all the necessary elements and establish all the necessary colleges before the Guidelines fully apply, starting on 10 January 2022.
In the meantime, the EBA will continue to monitor the establishment of new colleges. See the report: https://bit.ly/3mpeh7N (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)