ESMA Guideline: 17. Firms should ensure that staff giving information/investment advice about investment products, investment services or ancillary services that are available through the firm have the necessary knowledge and competence to: (V II/II g) understand issues relating to anti money-laundering.
A driving force for the EU to update its anti-money laundering directives has been pressure from the US to be consistent with FATCA. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed as part of the HIRE Act, generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments. The HIRE Act also contained legislation requiring U.S. persons to report, depending on the value, their foreign financial accounts and foreign assets.
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EU/US Dialogue on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act press release