EU Vows Laundering Crackdown after Danske Scandal
EU finance ministers on Tuesday vowed to crack down on money laundering in the wake of a $235 billion Danske bank scandal that shone a negative light on supervision standards in Europe.
Embarrassed European governments are seeking to strengthen current money laundering laws, which critics say leave too much responsibility to weak national regulators who lack staff and expertise.
"Everyone agreed today that reform was needed, but what it will look like in the long term, we still need to discuss," said Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loger, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Denmark, previously seen as a leader against corruption and fraud, became a sore point after it emerged that billions of euros were allegedly laundered through the Estonian branch of the Scandinavian country's biggest lender, Danske Bank.
Last month, Dutch banking giant ING sacked its top financial officer following a scandal over the firm's failure to vet clients for potential money laundering activities.
"We have come a very long way in the past few years but there are still important things that we need to learn and we must strengthen the European set-up," Danish Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov said at the talks.
Ministers at the talks defended their own national fight strategies, despite criticism from the EU executive in Brussels that too many countries do too little to implement current European rules.
"I am determined to correct the application of EU rules... We are not there," said EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova, who was also at the talks.
At the heart of a new initiative is the strengthening of the powers of the European banking regulator, the European Banking Authority (EBA), founded in 2010.
The agency, whose headquarters will move next year from London to Paris, could see its resources increase to ensure a more effective single supervision in the fight against money laundering.
Laure Brillaud of independent watchdog Transparency International EU called the commission proposal "a step in the right direction."
"It's quite striking that the EU has opened up its doors to free movement of capital but left the keys for money laundering supervision to national authorities," she said.
Still, Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands expressed resistance to adopting new changes without properly implementing older ones.
Referring to the Danske Bank scandal, Danish Minister Jarlov said that Copenhagen had "already learned some lessons from this case."
"The investigation is ongoing and we want the bank to be held accountable for its mistakes, we will keep our European partners informed," he promised.
Source: Agence France Presse
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