During an online conference organised by AML Intelligence on 17 May, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, outlined the package of measures to better combat money laundering, which are expected to be rolled out in early July.
The main measure, as announced in the May 2020 action plan (see EUROPE 12482/8), was the creation of a new authority dedicated to combating money laundering. According to Ms McGuinness, it should be in place by 2024, be fully staffed by 2025, and begin direct supervision in 2026.
She explained that the new authority should be responsible for directly supervising certain financial sector entities that carry out cross-border activities and are in the highest risk category. It will also act as the coordinator and supervisor of national supervisors for other entities, including - but to a lesser extent - some entities outside the financial sector.
It will also have a regulatory role, with the possibility of preparing technical standards and guidelines, and will be responsible for advising the Commission - for example, on money laundering risks outside the EU.
For its operation, the Commission intends to learn from the experience of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), which supervises the EU’s major banks.
Ms McGuinness said that the new authority should also be financed to a large extent by fees paid by supervised entities, to avoid placing an excessive burden on the EU budget.
The Commissioner also took stock of the harmonisation of certain provisions of the ‘anti-money laundering’ directive in a regulation. She notably confirmed that the Commission intends to review the list of sectors covered, starting by bringing EU rules in line with the latest Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards and covering all types of crypto-asset service providers.
Another dimension of the Commission’s plan is to increase the level of detail in certain areas which are already included in the AML Directive, such as customer due diligence and beneficial ownership.
The European Commission also intends to maintain pressure on the correct transposition and enforcement of existing directives. Elsewhere, it has commissioned studies on how the current anti-money laundering framework is implemented in each Member State. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)