ACAMS Europe 2022: The regulatory outlook

At ACAMS Europe 2022, Regulatory Outlook: Trends and Emerging Issues in Europe was not just a headline panel, but a core theme throughout the discussions. Check out Team Xapien’s main takeaways from the headline panel discussion below:

On day 1, Kieran Beer, Carolin Gardner, Raluca Prună and Jo Swyngedouw discussed:

• How the EU Commission’s new Anti Money Laundering (AML) / Counter Terrorism Financing (CFT) legislative package provides a “single EU rulebook” via a unified compliance regulatory framework.
• The new EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA)’s role in transforming AML and CFT supervision, and enabling information sharing amongst FIs.

Here is what we learnt:

1. The coming EU package of regulation has prioritised clarifying the rules for CDD. This includes clarifying the role of the UBO register which is now being created in every state.
   
2. There is a convincing case for AMLA – a single European AML supervisor. It brings together 57 authorities within the financial sector alone. But it has to be well designed. It must balance the roles of national NCAs and Central European decision making bodies for Europe institutions.
   
3. AMLA’s priority will be a developing single rule book. It will look to standardise what counts as “high risk”. NCAs will contribute but AMLA must have the final word in order to be consistent.
   
   Key Takeaway: a wholescale regulatory change is coming. Companies need to be prepared. That means nimble processes and with agile partners to respond to this need.
   
4. The European Union’s 6th Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD) has extended the scope of existing AML legislation so that:
   
5. The number of offences that fall under the scope of ‘Money Laundering’ has expanded. Now “enablers” as well as those who directly profit from money laundering will be legally culpable.
   
6. The legislation now allows for the punishment of legal persons, including companies or
   partnerships. Prior legislation only covered individuals. A legal person will be considered culpable for money laundering if it is established that they failed to prevent a “directing mind” from within the company from carrying out the illegal activity.
   
   Key Takeaway: The extension of criminal liability to legal persons is going to put pressure on senior decision makers to ramp up their compliance procedures as they feel direct, personal accountability. Companies will therefore have to ramp up their CDD procedures, and get efficient and reliable systems in place.
   

But how?

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