EU to name and shame banks that fail to fight money laundering
Jon Ihle, 08 May 2021
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is setting up a centralised database to name and shame financial institutions in the EU that have weak anti-money laundering (AML) controls.
The EBA, which is responsible for creating a single rulebook for bank regulation in the EU, said the new database would be a “key tool” for coordinating the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The authority is proposing to collect and store information on banks that demonstrate “weaknesses” in their AML efforts. It will also contain information on the measures that national regulators are taking to crack down on institutions that perform poorly in relation to AML. .
The EBA is now seeking input from stakeholders about how to define those weaknesses and how the information about financial institutions in the database will be disseminated, both among officials and to the public.
The objective is to help regulators coordinate and allocate appropriate resources across borders for on-site inspections as well as off-site monitoring.
