The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has published a special report that states that the current EU-wide AML/CFT action plan has deficiencies that must be addressed. The report further states that the EU’s AML/CFT supervision is incoherent and inconsistent from one Member State to the other.
Hundreds of billions of euros worth of suspicious transactions occur across Europe. Just within Europe, suspicious transactions worth 1.3% of the EU’s GDP take place. Over 75% of these suspicious transactions occur in credit institutions in over half of the Member States. However, the EU’s AML/CFT framework works mostly at the level of each Member State rather than taking up a more consolidated approach.
The ECA believes that EU must address its AML/CFT deficiencies and strengthen its AML/CFT supervision. Moreover, it is important to ensure that Member States strictly and promptly implement EU-wide AML/CFT regulations. The ECA recommends that EU start using regulations instead of directives in cases where this is possible. This will be an important step since the implementation of AML/CFT laws at the national level is crucial to strengthening EU-wide AML/CFT framework.
Source: European Court of Auditors