The Federal Association of German Banks (BdB) considers uniform European requirements in the fight against money laundering to be a step towards a single European financial market.

But with a view to the new EU authority to combat money laundering, BdB managing director Andreas Krautscheid warned against overlapping with other financial supervisory authorities.

It must be clear to him what the new authority, the EU banking supervisory authority EBA or the German BaFin will be responsible for.

Markus Frühauf

Editor in business.

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“The establishment of a new European money laundering authority is the right step towards greater efficiency and effectiveness;

however, duplication of responsibilities with European or national supervisory authorities must therefore be avoided right from the start by means of clear rules, ”said Krautscheid.

Like other German financial associations, the BdB, to which Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and Hypovereinsbank belong, is in favor of Frankfurt as the new location for the authority.

"The explosion of reports has brought little"

Krautscheid criticized the still inadequately clarified exchange between the obligated companies and the authorities about money laundering-relevant facts, because a clear and data protection-proof legal basis has so far been missing. Krautscheid and BdB chief legal advisor Thorsten Höche are “passionately” pursuing the maximum cash limit of EUR 10,000 planned by the EU Commission. However, they consider it questionable that every payment into a bank account of 10,000 euros or more must now be reported to the German money laundering authority FIU.

Similar to the German Money Laundering Act, which was passed in February, they fear a flood of reports that could overload the authorities. Krautscheid dealt with the German amendment to the law, according to which transactions with suspected minor crime must now be reported. The explosion in money laundering reports had little effect in recent years. One must ask oneself whether the banks reported false facts and why so few reports are criminally relevant, he said.