Skip to main content

“European Union finance ministers on Tuesday adopted a plan to enhance the bloc’s defenses against money laundering at banks, but the move could slow a legislative reform on banking supervision”, writes Francesco Guarrascio on Reuters.

The action plan comes as the response to high-profile cases of alleged money laundering at several European banks, which have been dominating newspaper headlines for most of 2018.

Ministers agreed there was a “need to strengthen the effectiveness of the current framework” to counter money laundering, and proposed some non-legislative actions to implement over the next few months. These include reducing the discretion of national supervisors in applying anti-money laundering rules, and the requirement for supervisors to “clarify the rules for assessing whether bank managers are fit for their job and on revoking banking licenses for serious breaches of anti- money-laundering rules”. Additionally, closer cooperation between national authorities is requested, but for now no new specific requirements on the exchange of information have been introduced.

At Know Your Customer, we welcome any proposals for stronger AML scrutiny and better cooperation between countries to fight the penetration of such practices. Our end-to-end compliance solution can be dynamically and quickly adapted to new requirements as they are introduced in different parts of the world, ensuring organisations are always prepared for any regulatory changes to come.

Last updated on April 23rd, 2023 at 07:34 pm

Claus Christensen

Claus Christensen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Know Your Customer. His vast array of previous experiences includes founding a technology company that develops email server infrastructure products for 60,000+ global customers and serving as VP Electronics at Thielert Aircraft Engines. A regular contributor to leading industry publications and a recognised expert in the anti-money laundering and financial regulation space, Claus is also the host of the RegTalks podcast and a senior lecturer of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE)’s RegTech Course.