AMLA DAY HIGHLIGHTS: Three times Brussels fires clear shots across agency’s bow, our ‘Word of the Day’ plus ‘Faces We Spotted in the Crowd’

By AML Intelligence Correspondents

Highlight of the day: The talk of the day was risk-based supervision and simplification – two sides of the same coin. EU finance chief Commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque travelled to Frankfurt with a clear message for AMLA: stick to the simplification mission, don’t over-regulate. For the agency, that means applying oversight proportionate to how risky an institution actually is.

Albuquerque criticised the EU’s past reflex of responding to problems by producing more regulation, and made clear AMLA should not follow that example. The EU executive stands ready to help, but the agency will need to hold the line to avoid irking bigwigs in Brussels.

Similarly, European Parliament Justice Committee Chair Javier Zarzalejos was straight up – we don’t want “stronger supervision but a safer Europe.” While the parliament’s powerful ECON committee chair Aurore Lalucq demanded a quick response to the use of stablecoins in money laundering.

In the main EU capitals there are already worrying murmurings of a “bureaucratic monster” in Frankfurt. This chatter has clearly made its way to Brussels. The AMLA team in Frankfurt has been warned.

Word of the day: Cooperation. Between financial intelligence units, between AMLA and national supervisors, and between authorities and the private sector. Everyone at the conference agreed to join forces for the success of the EU AML package — though whether that happens in practice still depends on how AMLA resolves certain open questions.

Bankers told the audience they have no objection to supervision being centralised in Frankfurt — but only if that means an end to national gold-plating. EU regulation takes precedence over national rules, but doubts remain over whether all member states will repeal conflicting national laws by 2027, when the EU package enters into force.

FIU cooperation was also flagged as central to AMLA’s success, though here the obstacles are both technical and political. Suspicious transaction reports still vary significantly from country to country, while the systems FIUs use to share intelligence will require time and investment. It also remains to be seen how those fiercely independent authorities will take to being coordinated by a central body like AMLA’s General Board.

Faces in the crowd: Beside the listed speakers, most of the agency top brass was present at the event. Among them AML Intelligence spotted: Bafin’s Birgit Rodolphe, Bank of Italy’s Sebastiano Laviola, Bank of Latvia’s Kristīne Černaja-Mežmale, Bank of Cyprus’ Kleanthis Ioannides, Central Bank of Ireland’s Tony Cahalan, Italian FIU chief Enzo Serata, Greek FIU’s Efstathios Tsirmpas and AMLA’s Head of the Executive Bureau Dominik Vu, who recently joined from the ECB.

Bank of Lithuania’s Gediminas Šimkus, who is in town for the ECB’s Governing Council, swung by the conference right on time to grab some lunch. A handful of ECB top supervisors were present too, with Supervisory Board member Annelli Tuominen and Director for Governance and Operation Pedro Teixeira led the delegation.

From the private sector: Giovanni Marino, president of the Cypriot-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Manuel Delgado, EY Partner, Thorsten Höche of the German banking association (BdB) and KPMG Head of AMLA Office, proficient substacker Benedict Wagner-Rundell, Politico’s top hack Johanna Treeck, Bloomberg’s banking guru Nicholas Comfort and Il Sole 24 Ore’ ECB resident watcher Isabella Bufacchi.