By AMLi Correspondents
“Each new money-laundering scandal damages the EU’s reputation as a place to do business and erodes people’s confidence in our financial system,” European Commission EVP Valdis Dombrovskis said ahead of today’s (Tuesday) announcement of the new AML Authority.
Dombrovkis, Europe’s trade chief, (pictured with Commissioner McGuinness) who oversees the DG FISMA directorate said the AML package to be announced at 1400 CET is a “far-reaching proposal.”
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The press conference will hear from Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice; Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of an Economy that works for People, and Commissioner for Trade, and Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability, and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA)
“While we have now some of the world’s toughest anti-money-laundering rules, we still need to close off some loopholes,” Dombrovskis added. The package will “ensure close coordination and robust checks so we can close the tap on dirty money.”
Referring to the AMLA Dombrovskis said, “we will create an EU supervisory agency to help fight against illicit proceeds, backed up by a series of other measures to protect the EU’s financial system.”
Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said “addressing money-laundering is vital for credibility and trust in our financial system, but it is also about tackling crimes that hurt our citizens.”
The proceeds of crime “are too easily laundered through the financial system and allow criminals to use and abuse the system to clean their dirty money.”
“Drug trafficking, people trafficking, prostitution, crimes against children — all generate money for criminals. Behind these dirty euros are tragic human stories,” said McGuinness. “It is our shared responsibility that we stop money-laundering — including through the use of crypto-currencies.”
Meanwhile, the race to host the new AMLA is well and truly on.
It has emerged that Germany is wants to be location of agency’s headquarters. But the bid is jarring with competitor countries who point to financial watchdog BaFin being asleep at the wheel on a number of occasions – particularly the BaFin collapse scandal.
The country also has 324 financial institutions which are not subject to money-laundering supervision because they were given an exemption from BaFin.
“The financial supervisory authority itself violates the EU anti-money-laundering directive,” Fabio De Masi, a member of the Bundestag for The Left and former MEP told Germany’s biggest newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.
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