It is official then, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, presented on Tuesday the candidacy of Paris to host the future European Authority against Money Laundering (AMLA in English).
This new entity is the result of the legislative package on the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism adopted in July 2021 by the European Commission.
Its objective is simple: “to strengthen the European approach in this area”, according to the Bercy press release.
It should be noted that European regulations, based on directives subsequently transposed at the national level, generate very different assessments and approaches to the fight against money laundering depending on the country. Therefore, the creation of the authority will harmonize the implementation of the mechanisms.
Paris meets “ideal conditions”
It will intervene in the direct supervision of the application of the regulations against money laundering with the most sensitive intermediaries. Suspicious financial flows are often cross-border.
The AMLA will bring together two colleges: 27 intelligence units and 27 national anti-money laundering officials and will have a budget of 30 to 40 million euros paid by the Commission.
The executive believes that the French capital meets “the ideal conditions for the installation (of the AMLA) and that of its teams.”
And to explain: “France plays a leading role in the fight against money laundering. We already host the European Banking Agency and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), organizations with which AMLA will have numerous and fruitful interactions. Paris, therefore, it has long had an international ecosystem dedicated to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, within which AMLA would find its place.”
Frankfurt, Vienna, Madrid, Vilnius also candidates
In fact, the international community already meets three times a year in Paris for the FATF plenary sessions, which will strengthen AMLA’s influence.
“The FATF evaluation report on France, published in May 2022, also attests to the quality of the action of the French authorities in the fight against money laundering, which naturally establishes its legitimacy to host the headquarters of a future authority in this field”. continues the Ministry of Economy.
More to the point, “the French capital benefits from a real estate offer that perfectly meets the needs of the future AMLA, and from quality air and rail connections that facilitate the development of its work with all its stakeholders, European and international” .
The Government has entrusted the responsibility of the tender project to Robert Ophèle, who has been, in particular, Lieutenant Governor of the Banque de France, President of the Resolution and Prudential Control Authority and then President of the Financial Markets Authority. “His great experience of him in the French and international financial sector is an obvious asset to support the candidacy of France”, recalls Bercy.
Frankfurt, Vienna, Madrid, Vilnius are also candidates and others can apply until the last moment. The host city will be chosen by the European Parliament, certainly under the Swedish presidency.
Source: BFM TV
