We are pleased to share the press release of the event, organised by the AME Secretariat. Industry players and policy-makers met to discuss the future of anti-money laundering in the EU. To access the press release, please click here.
Here are some of the quotes from the event:
“Fighting money laundering and terrorist financing is a key priority for the European union. Ambitious new priorities on anti-money laundering, agreed by the EU Finance Ministers on 5 December provide a clear political guidance for the new Commission to take this work forward”, said Jaakko Weuro, Financial Services Counsellor, representing the Finland’s Presidency of the Council of European Union.
“While the Union has one of the most advanced AML/CFT framework, significant further steps are needed for a comprehensive policy at Union level”, said Raluca Pruna, head of unit, DG for Justice and Consumers, European Commission.
In the light of recurrent money laundering cases, the current EU AML/CFT framework has proven to be insufficient to efficiently tackle financial crime. The European Banking Federation (EBF) is finalising its own analysis of the flaws and shortcomings of this framework. “We need to shift from a relatively inefficient process-driven approach to a more robust intelligence-led and outcome-oriented mindset”, said Roger Kaiser, EBF, at the seminar organised by AME on 11 December. “Before Christmas we will present the Commission with a set of 20 recommendations aimed at improving the consistency, the architecture, the efficiency and the administrability of the EU AML/CFT framework” said Kaiser. These recommendations will be detailed in a Blueprint to be published in early 2020.
“The various EU bodies must capitalise on the current level of political commitment and momentum around the issue of AML, there is a real opportunity to achieve structural change especially in the realm of enhancing Supervision - if this is achieved the future will hold a lot of promise for curtailing money laundering in the EU”, said Isabella Chase, Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies, Royal United Services Institute.
“We are already looking forward to the 2020 event, when the EU anti-money laundering/counter terrorist financing framework will be further strengthened by the new Commission”, stated the AME Secretariat.
