EU Council and Parliament Agree on Revised Anti-Money Laundering Directive

On February 2, 2001, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union agreed on a common position to adopting a revised directive on anti-money laundering. The common position will result in revising the 1991 EEC anti-money laundering directive. One of the reasons for the revision of the Directive is to more clearly establish which Member State’s authorities should receive suspicious transaction reports from branches of credit and financial institutions that have their head office in another EU Member nor which EU Member’s authorities are responsible for ensuring that such branches comply with the Directive. The common position clarifies that the authorities of the EU Members in which the branch is located should receive such reports and exercise the above responsibilities. The allocation of responsibilities will be clarified in the revised Directive by amending the definition of “credit institution” and “financial institution”…[more]