In the field of money laundering prevention, Hufeld argued that BaFin must continue to clarify which activities do and do not fall within the authority’s area of responsibility.
The President of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin), Felix Hufeld, has warned against false expectations towards BaFin. “Setting ourselves up as an authority with an all-encompassing field of competence for the sake of supposed success, or accepting such a role, would be questionable with regard to the principles of the rule of law,” said Hufeld in his speech at BaFin’s annual press conference in Frankfurt am Main on 7 May. On the contrary, close cooperation with other authorities, both at the national and international level, is becoming ever more important, according to Hufeld.
Hufeld warned that supervisors should not rest on their laurels in light of the successes of post-crisis regulation. Thanks to extensive reforms, the financial sector is more stable and more resilient than before the outbreak of the crisis. “Even the unprecedented regulatory effort following the outbreak of the crisis was unable to completely eliminate old risks or pre-empt all future challenges. Constant vigilance is therefore paramount. Reverting to the laissez-faire attitude of pre-crisis regulation would be fatal,” said Hufeld.
BaFin’s Chief Executive Director of Resolution, Dr Thorsten Pötzsch, also views cooperation as the best way forward when it comes to money laundering prevention. “One group in particular has benefited from the lack of consistent regulation in Europe up to now: law-breakers,“ said Dr Pötzsch. He emphatically praised the action plan issued by the Council of the EU as well as the European Commission’s roadmap. These provide for the creation of real supervisory convergence in Europe, among other things. Dr Pötzsch also welcomes the strengthening of the European Banking Authority (EBA), which will in future be able to demand investigations be carried out at the national level and, where necessary, take supervisory action itself. At the same time, he issued the following warning: “The EBA must not become a supervisor of supervisors.”
Full press release
© BaFin
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article