We fully agree with the Parliament in its draft report that the concept of beneficial ownership is crucial to increasing transparency of complex corporate structures and ease compliance with AML/CFT rules.
The
European Banking Federation (EBF), the European Savings and Retail
Banking Group, the European Association of Co-operative Banks, the
European Association of Public Banks, and the European Fund and Asset
Management Association sign a joint letter on the Parliament’s proposal
to lower the threshold for determining beneficial ownership to 5%.
The EBF and the co-signatories welcome the European Commission’s
proposal to introduce a new harmonised Anti-Money Laundering Regulation
which would make strides enhancing the resilience of the European
financial sector against attempts by criminals to use the EU to launder
the proceeds of illicit activities.
We fully agree with the Parliament in its draft report that the
concept of beneficial ownership is crucial to increasing transparency of
complex corporate structures and ease compliance with AML/CFT rules.
However, we do not agree that reducing the percentage threshold that
serves as an indication of ownership of a legal entity from 25% to 5%
would reduce opportunities for transparency rules to be circumvented. We
have significant concerns that such an amendment would be of little
benefit in identifying controlling interest holders and would instead
place a disproportionate burden on obliged entities while not helping to
achieve the desired result of preventing money laundering.
EBF
© EBF
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