On 3 June, STEP joined a webinar hosted by Anti-Money Laundering Europe (AME) on the future of the European Union’s fight against money laundering.

John Riches TEP, Chair of STEP’s Public Policy Committee, was joined on the panel by Jérôme Deslandes, Cabinet of the Executive Vice President of the European Commission; and Piers Haben, Director for Banking Markets, Innovation and Consumers at the European Banking Authority (EBA). The chair was Mike Savarese, AME.

The webinar discussed the European Commission’s package on anti-money laundering (AML) published on 7 May.

Its main item was an action plan, accompanied by a list of high-risk third countries, and a methodology describing how these were chosen. The action plan aimed to address the weaknesses identified in research from 2019 and was based on the following six pillars:

1. Better implementation of rules – This will be achieved by a number of tools particularly interconnection of beneficial ownership registers, more powers for the EBA and a focus on country-specific recommendations. The eventual aim is for an EU supervisory body responsible for conducting on-site examination on the effectiveness of the AML framework.
2. Harmonised rulebook – This will be achieved by sharing information, integrating the latest Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards and building on the good examples of member states.
3. EU level supervision – This integrated AML system will need to be jointly run by the EU and national authorities.
4. Coordination and support mechanisms for FIUs (Financial Intelligence Units) –Through common templates and tools, standards on feedback, support of joint analysis and training.
5. Law enforcement and information sharing – New tools such as criminalisation of money laundering, a Directive on the use of financial information and rules on asset recovery (including mutual recognition of freezing orders) will be used.
6. EU’s global role – This will be achieved through the new methodology and the list of high-risk third party jurisdictions that pose a threat to the EU’s financial system.

John Riches’ view on these developments from a private sector perspective, was that due to the rapid development of the EU’s AML framework, member states appear to have struggled to implement past incarnations of AML. He observed that there seemed to be an inconsistency in approach between states, resulting from a lack of clarity and practical guidance.

His main concerns were over beneficial ownership registers and transparency, and how this lack of clarity had made implementation of trust registers difficult, and also potentially unfair. He noted that the uncertainty over some of the provisions in the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive showed a lack of understanding on how trusts work. He also voiced major concerns over the potential conflict of public registers versus privacy rights.

The panel heard that the EU is aiming to be assessed as a single jurisdiction, with a single supervisor and rule book, within five years, so will be recognised as such by FATF. This single approach is seen as being cheaper and more efficient, and a more effective way of achieving a stronger, more unified and robust system.

The event ended with John Riches stressing that the EC consultation should be much more than a box-ticking exercise, and something more meaningful, which will benefit everyone.

• EC consultation action plan (ends 29 July)

Robert Carington is Policy Executive at STEP