Compliance & Regulation

The EU Has a Problem With Dirty Money

After a string of scandals, the European Commission has unveiled new plans to crack down on money laundering. It’s right to take this problem seriously — but its proposals are weak. Instead of setting up a new agency and equipping it to do the job, Europe plans to keep relying on national authorities, some of which aren’t up to the task.

Banks in Denmarkthe NetherlandsLatvia and Malta have all been linked to criminal inflows from countries including Russia and North Korea. The EU has moved to centralize banking supervision, but money laundering has remained a national responsibility. It was the U.S. Treasury Departmentthat found out that ABLV, a Latvian lender, was involved in “institutionalized money laundering,” prompting EU authorities to withdraw its banking license. And a report by the European Banking Authority (EBA) concluded that the Maltese regulator had “failed to conduct an effective supervision” of Pilatus Bank, a lender with links to Iran.

READ THE ARTICLE by BLOOMBERG