The European Parliament adopted the Directive on Money Laundering and included a number of amendments on the responsibilities of financial institutions, lawyers, insurance agents and others involved in money laundering or the funding of terrorism.
Banks, credit companies and other financial institutions will have to check a customer's identity when they open an account or whenever the customer carries out a transaction of € 15,000 or more. Anonymous accounts and those opened under false names will be banned.
Those subject to the Directive need to:
identify and verify the identity of their customer and of its beneficial owner, and to monitor their business relationship with the customer;
report suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing to the public authorities -usually, the national financial intelligence unit; and
take supporting measures, such as ensuring a proper training of the personnel and the establishment of appropriate internal preventive policies and procedures.
Each Member State will have to decide under what circumstances a financial operation poses a high risk of money laundering or of financing terrorism.
Parliament added to the Commission proposal a requirement for financial institutions to identify not only the director of a company, casino or trust which carries out a transaction but also all 'beneficial owners' who control at least 25% of those entities. The Commission had set the threshold at 10%.
Final adoption of the Directive is expected at the ECOFIN Council of 7 June in Luxembourg.
Commission press release
© European Parliament
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