Tribune. The hundreds of millions of euros of Danske Bank laundered by its subsidiary in Estonia for years, the headache of neobanks which, if necessary, make it possible to open remote accounts in other countries more easily than at home. transit dirty money, without the need for cash mules: these are two examples that we would like to understand and above all avoid.
It is the “everyone at home” at the level of the States in these matters which is the cause. This is also what tackle European Banking Authority (EBA) guidelines published for consultation, May 27.
Financial institutions are subject to two forms of supervision: there is the control of authorities that fight against money laundering (LCB, or in English, “Money laundering”, ML) and terrorist financing (“Financing terrorism”, or FT) and there is the overall (prudential) supervision expected of financial institutions.
In France, for example, the regulator of financial institutions (the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority, ACPR) recently sanctioned Carrefour Banque, Cardif, an insurance subsidiary of the BNP Paribas group, and ING Bank for breach of their anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system (LCB-FT).
The reign of the informal
Each form of control uncovers signs of money laundering that the other may not have seen. The controls imposed by one are not those of the other, neither are their results and, let’s not even talk about the controls which vary between states, because their legislation too.
When the same institution manages LCB and FT, it is necessary to structure how the departments in charge of both communicate with each other: not in front of the coffee machine!
The EBA would like to be able to quickly identify AML and CFT risks in an institution before they crystallize: she is right. When a scandal comes to light, it is always astonishing to see the years during which it has lasted.
In eighteen of the twenty-two national jurisdictions (including the European Central Bank) that responded to the EBA on current practices, money laundering and terrorist financing supervision and prudential supervision are included. of the same authority, but only four have an internal cooperation agreement and two are in the process of developing it. Elsewhere, it is the rule of the informal on the basis of practice. But is it sturdy enough?
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