“Close loopholes organised crime uses to move dirty money” - David Casa 

“The FinCen Leaks provide a snap shot of how criminal organisations move money around through our banks. They can give us an insight into regulatory vulnerabilities and what must be done to address them”, stated David Casa, the EPP standing rapporteur on Anti-Money Laundering within the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Casa addressed a debate on the FinCen leak that took place within the European Parliament in Brussels this morning. The FinCen leaks consist some 2500 documents that show how suspicion of money laundering is reported by banks to supervisory authorities. 

“What we are seeing is the increasing practice of certain banks filing large amounts of suspicious transaction reports to FIUs. These huge numbers have an impact on the ability of authorities to investigate effectively. Banks then continue to allow obvious cases of transactions benefitting criminal organisations to go ahead. 

The system is defective and must be addressed. Our objective is not to create unnecessary administrative costs. And it is certainly not to make it impossible for honest business to operate. Our objective must be that of identifying how criminals launder their money, putting a stop to it and bringing them to justice”. 

Casa reiterated his call for a Single EU Rulebook on AML that could also address these practices. “A new AML Regulation should be proposed as soon as possible”.