Brussels has moved to toughen enforcement of its rules against money laundering, saying greater cross-border co-ordination was needed to track terror suspects and prevent a repeat of scandals seen in banks from Latvia to Malta.
The European Commission on Tuesday proposed ways to remove bottlenecks in sharing of bank account data among law enforcement authorities, including when the information was held by another EU member state.
The plans would seek better co-operation among the national financial intelligence units responsible for policing suspicious transactions, setting a standard three-day deadline for them to respond to requests from counterparts in other EU countries.
The draft law would also simplify law enforcement authorities’ access to national registers of bank account holders, tackling what officials say is an uneven patchwork of national rules. [...]
Ms Jourova told the Financial Times that the proposal was “about strengthening investigation and prosecuting of serious crime, by ensuring stronger co-operation between financial intelligence units of different member states and with other law enforcement authorities”. [...]
Under the new rules, it would be easier for authorities investigating the aftermath of attacks to retrieve transaction records, generating leads to other suspects. [...]
The plans set out on Tuesday are part of a broader push by Brussels to tackle illegal behaviour in the financial sector.
The European Parliament is set to adopt legislation on Thursday that will give the European Central Bank and law enforcement authorities clearer legal rights to share information on suspicious transactions. The ECB directly supervises major euro area banks, but has no authority when it comes to combating money laundering, which is a matter for national regulators.
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