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Brussels might have plans to strip the European Banking Authority of all its anti-money laundering duties and hand them to a new EU anti-money laundering watchdog.
The plans, set to be published by the European Commission on 20 July 2021 are designed to repair much of the reputational damage the bloc endured in recent years after a string of scandals revealed a blind spot in banking supervision, according to POLITICO.
Amid concerns over the independence of the EBA’s board after the Paris-based agency failed to hold national regulators accountable for sleeping on the job, the Commission plans to hollow out the agency’s dedicated unit and instead transfer the powers to a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), the draft reveals.
The authority will have direct supervisory powers over financial companies across the bloc, with the power to impose fines totalling millions of euros. It will pick supervised firms depending on how exposed they are to illicit funds through cross-border business and risky clientele.
With the board of the new agency to be independent from EU countries — unlike the arrangements at the EBA — supporters say the proposals will be a major step forward in cleaning up the financial industry
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