Money laundering and the response to it are firmly back on the European agenda. After cases of alleged money laundering involving lenders in Latvia, Estonia and Malta in 2018, questions have been raised over the effectiveness of Europe’s anti-money laundering (AML) measures and if EU authorities, including the European Central Bank (ECB), require greater supervision and enforcement powers.
Indeed it is still often the US, mainly the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), that points the finger and highlights AML shortcomings, even in Europe. Latvia’s second largest bank by assets on year-end 2016 data, ABLV Bank, was a case in point.
