New AML and Counter Terrorist Financing Laws will give real teeth to new Authority - MEP Kelleher

“Today’s European Parliament vote to adopt new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) Rules is an important step in the fight against white collar crime and will give real teeth to the new AML Authority.

“The EU’s AML framework has been amended several times over the last decade, often in response to either tragic events that were funded by terrorist financing or in response to yet another leak of documents showing the vast scale of tax avoidance, tax evasion and money laundering.

“Sadly, the amendments were effectively like playing "whack-a-mole" as after each iteration the criminals were able to find another loophole in the framework to exploit.

“While Ireland is bitterly disappointed at Dublin losing out in its bid to host the AML Authority, its significance as a powerful tool in the fight against money laundering should not be overlooked and neither should the strength of the new framework.

“This new package of rules reinforces the framework by moving the rules from a Directive to a Regulation – that is to say that the rules will now apply to all relevant entities in the same manner across the entire Union, and the discrepancies caused by differences in national implementation of the rules will be avoided.

“To complement this, the newly established AMLA will coordinate cooperation amongst the national authorities including by facilitating joint analyses on cases and information sharing.

“The new rules tighten up several aspects of the framework, bringing it in line with the practices of today's criminals and the means they use beyond simply cash. Notably, the scope of the Regulation is extended to traders of luxury goods such as jewellery and goldsmiths, as well as luxury cars and yachts. The rules have also been modernised, in that they will apply to so-called crypto-asset service providers. 

"Overtime, the criminals have learned to hide in plain sight, concealed by intricate ownership systems. The new framework exposes the so-called beneficial owners by looking at both direct and indirect control of entities to identify the real beneficiaries. This will mean that control can no longer be concealed by multi-layer ownership structures. 

“Looking at this package as a whole, largely the new rules bring transparency and encourage information sharing. This can be the EU’s effective weapon against money laundering and this is where the EU can thrive.

“Borders do not confine money laundering and terrorist financing but we now have the means and the connections to share information, identify the anomalies, and to join the dots to clamp down on the criminals.

“It is easy enough to forget the real impact of money laundering when talking about the complexities of company ownership, or when thinking about the glamour of the luxury goods market. Nevertheless, we should not forget that these crimes have victims and these crimes cause much anguish, fear and heartache,” concluded Kelleher.

-ENDS-