News
EU Reaches Agreement on Beneficial Ownership, Advancing Fourth AML Directive
By Irene Madongo
printFactions within the European Union reached a compromise Tuesday on the terms of the long-awaited Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, including provisions to create central registers on the ultimate beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities, as well as trusts in every member state. Access to the registers will be limited to "competent authorities," and their financial intelligence units (without any restriction), "obliged entities" (such as banks conducting their customer due diligence duties), and to members of the public or organizations who can demonstrate a "legitimate interest", such as investigative journalists and other concerned citizens, a brief European Parliament...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
A proposed expansion of the European Union's due diligence rules to cover trusts only partially addresses their vulnerability to criminal exploitation, leaving long-term loopholes in the bloc's controls against tax evasion and money laundering intact, say sources.
As the EU nears final adoption of its latest anti-money laundering directive, questions remain over how nations and companies will implement the plan, the head of an industry advisory group said Thursday.
Ahead of Tuesday's debate on the provisions of the EU's Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, German banks' challenges include identifying transactions connected to terrorism and conducting CDD on beneficial owners, according to a senior German official.
European Union leaders Tuesday outlined steps beyond the finalization of the bloc's latest anti-money laundering directive to stem the financial networks of terror groups, promising more regulation to come.
EU representatives are set to advance proposals Wednesday that would require member-states to collect more data on beneficial owners, better scrutinize the finances of politicians and harmonize cross-border wire rules.
Britain will soon strengthen its asset-freezing powers and review its suspicious transaction reporting rules, according to a governmental plan outlined Thursday.
On the eve of key behind-the-scenes talks on the Fourth European Union Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the rift over proposals for the public register of trusts has widened between the United Kingdom and Europe.
Intergovernmental plans to better identify corporate owners will do little to thwart financial crooks, even at great cost to banks and governments, according to an academic report on offshore financial flows.
European Union nations may still have to name the owners of corporations but they won't necessarily do so publicly, under the economic bloc's latest iteration of an anti-money laundering proposal.
EU parliamentarians voted Tuesday to require member-states to update their laws targeting money launderers and the financiers of terrorism, in part by naming corporate owners.
The EU Parliament adopted final recommendations Wednesday that would establish a public prosecutor's office and require member nations to ascertain the beneficial owners of companies incorporated within their jurisdictions.
The European Commission unveiled proposals Tuesday for a Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive that would require greater disclosures of beneficial ownership and increased scrutiny of domestic politicians, among other changes.
U.S. Treasury Department officials are weighing whether to exempt trusts and offer more flexibility on verification requirements in an upcoming proposal that would impose data collection duties on corporate accounts held at banks.
Europe's financial intelligence units are asking the European Commission for uniformity in their ability to suspend suspicious transactions under a forthcoming anti-money laundering directive, a Dutch official said Monday.