The EU Council is pushing the European Parliament to introduce tougher rules to tackle money laundering with the launch of a draft directive
The proposal is designed to prevent the financial system being used for the funding of criminal activities and to strengthen transparency rules to prevent the large-scale concealment of funds.
It is aimed at closing down the financial means of criminals without creating unnecessary obstacles to the functioning of payment systems and financial markets. The text amends directive 2015/849, adopted in May 2015.
Under the proposals, the threshold for identifying the holders of prepaid cards would be lowered from €250 (£213) to €150 (£128) and customer verification requirements would be made tighter. Virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers will have to apply customer due diligence controls, ending the anonymity associated with such exchanges.
The plans include improving cooperation between the member states' financial intelligence units (FIUs) which will be given access to information in centralised bank and payment account registers, enabling them to identify account holders.
In addition, the draft directive calls for improved checks on risky third countries. The Commission has established and regularly updates a harmonised list of non-EU countries with deficiencies in their anti-money laundering prevention regimes. Additional due diligence measures will now be required for financial flows from these countries.
There will also be enhanced access to beneficial ownership registers, so as to improve transparency about the ownership of companies and trusts. The registers will also be interconnected to facilitate cooperation between member states. Public access is foreseen on the basis of a legitimate interest for all types of companies and trusts, which the Council says is an improvement on the current rules as concerns trusts that do not have a business purpose.
The directive requires a qualified majority for adoption by the Council, in agreement with the European Parliament.
The member states will have 12 months to transpose the directive into their national laws and regulations. They will however have longer periods (24 or 36 months) in which to implement the various provisions on the beneficial ownership registers.
The draft directive on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing is here.
