“We’re committed to leading the fight against money laundering in Europe”, says Petr Ježek

ALDE MEP Petr Ježek (CZ) chairs the EP Special Committee Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance which is dealing today with the issue of money laundering in the EU banking system.

The newly created Committee held this morning a public hearing on “Combat of Money Laundering in the EU banking system”. The aim of the hearing was to acquire a more complete and detailed understanding of the risks posed by money laundering in the EU banking sector with a view to improving the supervisory system and reducing these risks.

“Up to 1.2% of EU annual GDP is detected as being involved in suspicious financial activity and up to 2.3 trillion EUR are laundered annually worldwide. Cases of money laundering in EU banks affect the reputation of the whole banking union. If we don’t want to lose the fight against money laundering, we need to tackle this issue at EU level”, he said.

The hearing was structured in two panels, the first devoted to examining the money laundering risks in the EU banking sector through selected examples of financial institutions which have recently raised concerns of money-laundering, and the second to evaluating the way in which checks and controls should be strengthened at EU and national level to reduce money-laundering risks.

Representatives of European institutions, such as the European Banking Authority, the Single Resolution Board and the Supervisory Board at the European Central Bank, of the US FinCEN, of national financial supervisors and financial intelligence units, and of banks presenting money-laundering concerns, were been invited to take part at the hearing and express their point of view.

More info: david.vidal@europarl.europa.eu