By STEPHEN RAE for AMLi
GERMANY has taken further steps towards building out its new AML super agency, the Federal Office for Combating Financial Crime (BBF) with a meeting of European experts.
The meeting on the topic of “Financial intelligence in the international fight against money laundering’ – Geldwäsche in German – was held at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin.
Speakers included Dr Marcus Pleyer, who is now head of Germany’s project to set up the Federal Office for Combating Financial Crime (BBF) and Daniel Thelesklaf, the new head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) who exchanged views with local and international experts.
A report on AML Intelligence last week revealed that the German financial capital Frankfurt has taken a lead in the race to host Europe’s new AML Authority (AMLA).
Meanwhile, at the Berlin meeting there was a panel discussion with Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, head of Holland’s FIU and Max Braun from the Luxembourg FIU, Jérôme Beaumont, executive secretary of the Egmont Group and Markus Herbrand, Financial Policy spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group. The speakers underlined the special role of FIUs in combating financial crime.
“The experts agreed on the importance of the risk-based approach for the effective functioning of FIUs. They also discussed current developments in the field of international anti-money laundering and expressly praised the current reform considerations in Germany for the establishment of the BBF,” the finance ministry said today (Monday).
The new authority is intended to combine FIU analysis, criminal investigations and supervisory coordination under one roof, thus enabling a holistic fight against money laundering. “For the first time, their work is fully aligned with the so-called ‘Follow-The-Money,'” the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, last week Dr Pleyer spoke about the battle against financial crime with Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the European Commission’s DDG for financial services Alexandra Jour-Schroeder and Deputy General Prosecutor Andrés Ritter from the European Public Prosecutor‘s Office at a session moderated by Editor-in-Chief Detlef Fechtner from Boersenzeitung.
“As government’s anti-financial crime regimes are usually organized in a multidimensional way through several authorities (horizontally on the central state level and vertically on different levels from central to regional state levels) rather than in a monolithic block, we discussed the need for an effective cooperation of anti-money laundering (AML) and prudential supervisors, Financial Intelligence Units, law enforcement, tax authorities, customs and others,” said Dr Pleyer.
“We suggested to consider also the need of cross-border cooperation of national authorities within Europe, but also beyond, discussed the role of the upcoming EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority AMLA in this regard and cherished the value of cooperation with the private sector that plays an essential part in the AML „value chain“, especially when integrated through public private partnerships such as the Anti Financial Crime Alliance (AFCA) in Germany,” he added.
He also said the group recognized challenges for an effective cooperation “when it comes for example to data protection and data quality and discussed what solutions digital tools offer in this regard.”
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