As the European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs have just published their draft report on the reform of the EU anti-money laundering framework (see EUROPE 12917/24), the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Civil Liberties (LIBE) committees discussed the issue with experts on Tuesday 22 March. They stressed the need to strengthen the future Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) (see EUROPE 12874/14).
Created through the anti-money laundering package (see EUROPE 12769/5), the AMLA should benefit from a harmonisation of information exchange between national Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) in order to function at its best. “Our ability to cooperate is a European problem”, said Ilze Znotina, head of Latvia’s FIU. By further extending harmonisation, Europeans will not only be able to prevent criminal activity, but also strengthen the network that supports them. That’s what’s missing from the package, she says. “Without solidarity, it will be a failure”, she added. The experts expressed their wish that the AMLA would eventually establish information standards at European level.
Similarly, this exchange raises IT issues. “The transfer of information to the European Commission works well, but it could work better, with operational support with new software to deal with blockchain”, said Guillaume Valette-Valla, director of TRACFIN, the French FIU.
Furthermore, the findings of the experts were confirmed by the European Banking Authority, which published its report on financial intelligence units the same day. According to her, the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is improving, but is not yet always effective, as some FIUs face difficulties in implementing information exchange mechanisms with other competent authorities. Whether due to the sector’s exposure to customers from third countries with a high risk of money laundering, or the lack of adequate legal powers, the units have been hampered in their mission.
For Marcus Pleyer, President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the intergovernmental body for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, interoperability means “the need to interconnect transparency registers and transfer them to third countries to close loopholes”.
The experts also felt that an authority should also be responsible for sanctioning countries that do not meet the criteria for information exchange.
See the EBA report: https://aeur.eu/f/x3 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)