By Africa Pinillos
Head of the Supervisory Area, Sepblac
The European Parliament (EP) recently made public the consolidated version of its position, adopted by ECON and LIBE on 28 march, on the AMLA Regulation that will be endorsed in the EP plenary.
Therefore, the trilogue negotiations will start by the co-legislators and will last the next months.
One of the aspects of the negotiations that is complex from a political stance is the decision of the seat of AMLA where at least nine Members States have shown their interest to host the new agency.
Taking into account the case-law of the European Court of Justice, the EP has proposed nine technical criteria included in Article 4 of the AMLA Regulation to set up an objective selection process.
In October 2022, Spain presented the candidacy of Madrid to host AMLA. This candidacy is strongly supported by the public and private sector in Spain. It is time for Spain.
Why Madrid is the best choice to host AMLA.
Spain is one of the EU financial and economic centers that have not already been entrusted to host an EU agency and it is clearly different from those big European economies that concentrates all the most relevant financial agencies, such Paris or Frankfurt.
Not only from a technical point of view which will be clearly explained, but also because Madrid is the best city to work and live as known by all workers and people always welcomed in the city.
Spain is a country that has shown its highest compromise and experience in fighting against financial crime. This experience has been implemented with a robust AML/CFT system that has being internationally recognized by FATF(Financial Action Task Force), and other bodies, as one of the most advanced and effective.
FATF confirms Spanish leadership position and the national commitment with the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
In fact, Spain has been rated as one of the two EU member States with the highest level of effectiveness in the AML/CFT supervision from the international standpoint as substantial, with full operational independence and autonomy. The rest of the EU member States have lower assessment in this field. The same scores related to the quality of its financial intelligence.
From an AML/CFT technical perspective, th eaforementioned EP criteria point out three key aspects that are needed for AMLA to work efficiently and that Madrid is outstanding: independence, specialization and unconditional support from the host competent authorities.
AMLA should independently exercise its functions within the framework of the AML/CFT supervisory system and not be affected by unduly influence from third parties.
This is how Sepblac, the Spanish AML/CFT Supervisor and FIU has worked the last 30 years raising also the minimum EU standards.
Sepblac has focused on the supervision of all obliged entities compliance of the AML/CFT rules and the financial intelligence analysis tasks with no interference.
The powers and tasks of the new agency are not related only to financial entities but affects to all economic sectors including the new actors like the crypto-asset providers.
Therefore, there are no such intended synergies with prudential supervisors (EU and national), and this is not a criteria considered by the EP. This is, of course, without prejudice of the necessary information exchange arrangements among all stakeholders, including LEAs and judicial authorities, as foreseen in the legislative proposals.
As regards the specialization and expertise, the Spanish model of a single AML/CFT supervisor for financial and non-financial obliged entities and FIU, Sepblac have driven such effectiveness which AMLA has been taking as a modeland should be recognized internationally in the future vis-à-vis third countries.
In a nutshell, AMLA will undoubtedly benefit from thebackground and support of all stakeholders in Spain, from Madrid.
At last, being well aware of the social scourge of money laundering and terrorist financing in Europe, Madrid is willing to be the EU center to build up a stronger EU AML/CFT system by hosting AMLA.
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