EU adopts plan on bank money laundering, may delay reforms

[December 04, 2018]  By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers on Tuesday adopted a plan to enhance the bloc's defenses against money laundering at banks, but the move could slow a legislative reform on banking supervision.

The action plan is meant to be the EU response to high-profile cases of alleged money laundering at banks in several EU states, including Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain and Cyprus.

Ministers agreed there was a "need to strengthen the effectiveness of the current framework" to counter money laundering, and proposed some non-legislative actions to implement in coming months.

But the plan did not include any recommendation for legislative changes and did not take address calls from the European Central Bank to set up an EU-wide agency to counter money laundering.

The plan could also delay a reform of money-laundering supervision at banks proposed by the European Commission in September, because ministers first want to assess the recent cases of financial crime at the bloc's lenders, the document said confirming a Reuters report last week.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Alison Williams, Larry King)

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